Silence's Suffering Scream
by Evil-Ekat
Summary: Dipper and Mabel come across the broken pieces of a man trapped in Bill after they exorcise the demon out of him. He may have been freed from Bill, but that doesn't mean the demon is anywhere near finished with any of them. And he'll do anything to get his vessel back. [ChipDip and MaBill but not Pinecest or a love-triangle.]
1. Chapter 1

**This is an interesting little idea that I've had poking the back of my mind for a while now. Yes, yes I've already got a bit on my plate. But _Hourglass_ only has six to eight chapters left, _Eternity_ may not be updated until January by the looks of things. I guess this guy might be started around January, perhaps on the same day I properly continued _Shattered Star_. But we'll see how it all works out these next few months or so.**

**Enough of me justifying stuff that you do not care hear about! I have almost a third of this story (It's only tennish 2000-3000 word chapters max.) written. This chapter being a prologue, it's the obvious exception. Plus a sort of epilogue I suppose. But you know how giving a definite length of a story works with me. It doesn't. It expands by at least three times, multiplies itself by five and divides in to quarters and is then multiplied again to the power of sixty-five.**

**But, I would also like to disclaim to please not complain about the pairing of this story. If you don't like, don't read. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, seeing as there are not many large stories with this pairing.**

**But without farther ado, _Silence's Suffering Scream._**

**Title: Silence's Suffering Scream**

**Summary: Dipper and Mabel come across the broken pieces of a man trapped in Bill after they exorcise the demon out of him. He may have been freed from Bill, but that doesn't mean the demon is anywhere near finished with him.**

**Rating: T**

**Genre: Tragedy/Humour/Hurt/Comfort/Angst/Supernatural**

**Pairing: ChipDip and MaBill (Not a love triangle. Although that would be hilariously ironic.)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Prologue...<strong>_

He was resting, laying on his side, with his bad eye facing the ground. Things around him went dark. The dark was bad. He did his best to not whimper in fear. The things in the dark might find him if he did. He didn't want to be found. He wasn't ready to be found again and hurt. The cycle would of course resume itself after a while. He just didn't want it to start right now.

His primitive thoughts were interrupted by something. A scream. Bill's voice. Only it wasn't his usual taunting laughter, or a scream of delight, it seemed almost like genuine fear. Fear and pain. Somewhere deep within the unfamiliar darkness, another scream followed that one. This was when he realized that something was happening. Something big.

The demon's voice followed the horrible screams. He was able to hear what the demon was saying. Not everything in the conversation made sense to him though. He did not know what was happening, why it was happening.

"Hah! You honestly think you can stop me like this?! One of your pathetic religious human rituals?!"

There was a reply. It was a feminine voice, that was loud and boisterous. He had never heard it before.

"Not just any mysterious exorcism ritual! This one's from _Ghost Turtle_! How do you like that huh?!"

"You got your ritual from a movie? Kid, I'm a whatever-year-old dream-demon, you can't seriously expect something from a horror movie to- AH! It burns! What did you do to this water?!"

"Come on Dipper, let's get 'im!"

"No! No! What are you brats doing with that?!" The demon snarled. "Get away from me!"

More screams from his tormentor were heard. A squeak escaped him after hearing such loud noises. He hoped that the things in the darkness would not find him again because of this. They were very good at sensing fear. So much so that he tried to feel less scared. But this just brought a wave of hopelessness upon him. There was no way that he would ever escape his clutches for very long.

Fire suddenly seared through his entire body. It was a pain that he had never felt before. It was so strong and overwhelming. All his muscles burn from it. The feeling was like exhaustion, only it hurt more. It grew worse and worse, stronger and stronger as another round of nightmareish torture overcame his frail body.

A scream escaped his lips, as his unseen torturer grew stronger, refusing to stop. Spasms wreaked through his being, growing more powerful with each wave of searing fire. His mind became a blank, red, haze of nothing as the pain refused to let him escape to the hidden parts of his own head. Where nothing hurt any more.

Through the suffering, a voice snarled;

"You think this will stop me for long?! How can an exorcism work on me when I haven't possessed anyone's body?!"

The next voice was different. It was soft in comparison to the feminine voice, but his tone held just as much accusation and venom.

"We know there must be something you're bound to! All demons have to have something tied to the planet!"

"Oh, did you read that in your precious little book? In case you weren't able to tell Pine Tree, I don't fall under the "most demons" category!"

Bill was lying. It was a bluff. He was still here. Trapped inside the demon. Or maybe it was the demon inside of him. He couldn't remember why he was here.

"Two words Bill: Invisible. Ink."

There was no response to the Pine Tree's remark. His tormentor gave a scream instead, as his bluff was called. Liar.

"Dipper!" The feminine voice called.

"I-I'm fine Mabel." The Pine Tree said to the feminine voice. "Let's finish this!"

"No! Wait! How about a dea-" His voice was sharply cut off by another scream.

The pain inside seemed to swell within, like hot air that was about to burst. The blood in his veins seemed to boil, and a throbbing pain surrounded the burning feeling that still tore through him like a tidal wave. His vision faded to black, as he felt his little bit of strength and energy start to drain away from him. There was no hope for him... The pain just grew stronger and stronger as the blazing destructive fire refused to stop.

It stopped. All of a sudden, the fierce, unforgiving thing waned. Not gradually, like it regularly would have, but abruptly. It was gone. All gone. Yet still his energy continued to wane, as the screams slowly faded in to silence. He squeezed his eye shut, hoping that whatever happened to his tormentor would pass over him.

But to no avail. A pair of footsteps walked through the dark, in his direction. Instincts told him that he should jump to his feet and run. Common sense said that he was to weak to outrun whatever was after him. His strength was already fading, and he felt himself slipping in to sweet unconciousness. But the sound grew closer and closer until he was certain whatever it was loomed right over him.

_"Run. Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun."_

The word echoed in his mind, repeating itself with every beat of his heart.

"Dipper!" The voice known as Mabel gasped. "Come here!"

More footsteps echoed through the dark, coming closer to him as well. He flinched when the one known as Pine Tree said;

What do you think he's doing here?"

"I dunno' but he looks really awful. We need to get him out of here!"

"But Mabel! We don't know who or what he is! What if it hurts us?"

They were talking about him. He did not move, or make a sound from his curled up little ball on the ground.

"No... Dipper... I think he's the thing Bill was bound to!"

"Bound to?! It said that objects were used! That's why you get that crazy cursed jewelry that kills everyone who owns it, or those cars where every day on a certain date someone's crashed in the same way!"

"That's crazy conspiracy stuff bro! Bill isn't exactly an ordinary dream-demon, if there is such a thing, so another person would make sense!"

"But..." He faltered.

"Come on! Even if he isn't, we can't just leave the poor guy here!"

Both voices were silent for a moment. Then, the young man said;

"Alright, we'll take him back to the Shack. But if he turns out to be bad news-"

"It's on me." Mabel sighed.

Something grabbed on to his arms. Something held on to his legs as well.

"One, two, three, lift!"

He was picked up. They were carrying him somewhere. He wanted to fight the two kidnappers, but he was too scared. They would hurt him if he tried to fight. His body already hurt from the pain of before. It was sore, and still ached. They were being gentle with him now, but he didn't want to be hurt in a struggle. The pain was bad. He didn't like it.

He knew in some sort of distorted way that he was being carried for a very long time without pause. The words of the male and female were nothing more than little nonsensical sounds to him.

His head started to grow fuzzy as their journey continued. It wasn't pain, but something about it felt very wrong. His final thought before blissful, unaware, unconciousness swept through him was that he had no idea where they were taking him. He just hoped that maybe he had finally died.

_**January 3, 2015**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Happy new year! Unless you celebrate Chinese New Years (I happen to do both.) in which case happy almost new year! Thank you very much for all of the support you guys have given so far. And hey, the wait was not all that long either! Thus, a new story begins. This one more organized than usual. Surprising is it not?**

**Winston: _Win-Stun _An old English name, it's meaning being "joyful stone." As soon as I know what that means, I'll let you know. I picked the name because it was the name of the main character's in George Orwell's _1984, _which is one of my favourite political*ish* works of fiction. I love the name, and found it fittingly ironic for this character's current circumstances.**

**However, Bill's nick-name for him is a coincidence/pure cruelty in how ironic it is when it comes to the definition. It's like some kind of great big conspiracy! So much so that I believe that this deserves a round of my splendid evil laughter! **

**Well, I had just wanted to get that little speech out of the way before any questions were raised on the matter. I've had it a few times with the name of Mabel's son in my other story _Hourglass. _I pick things with significance to me most of the time, but not when it comes to the actual meaning. English meanings for names are always ridiculously nonsensical these days.**

**Well, enough cryptic foreshadowing! Onwards!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p>Mabel was laying on the bedroom floor, on the space right between her bed and Dipper's. Dipper's bed was covered in all sorts of nerd stuff and paper he couldn't sit on that. Mabel had debated just rolling his bed cover in to a burrito, taking all of the stuff with it and then laying down, but her brother would have a freak out. There was supposedly a method to his madness, one that was better left untouched.<p>

Her own bed was currently... Occupied, by the poor man they had found in Bill. He had fallen unconscious when they carried him back home with them the night before, and had not woken up since. It was her turn to take Dipper's shift and watch the poor guy. It was around lunch time right now, and her brother was off running a tour for Stan. They had both agreed that it was best to butter up their great-uncle with this. Who knew how he would react otherwise!

Stan nearly had heart attack as she and her twin returned from "the movies" covered in mysterious neon-blue liquid that smelt like blood, while Dipper was ridiculously beaten and torn up. Her brother had a nasty-looking black eye that was starting to swell up, and there were long claw-like scratches across his chest. Courtesy of Bill after Dipper called his bluff, and explained he knew about the invisible entries in the journals. Allowing him to discover how to temporarily lock him in the dreamscape, by taking away the thing he was bound to.

And as it turned out, that thing was a person. The young man they had carried all the way home at three in the morning. The same man who now slept on her bed. At least, he seemed to be a young man.

His hair was completely white, but Dipper said that it might have been from some sort of shock. He After all, his eyebrows and arm hairs were still blond. His face was not lined, although he did have quite a few scars along his arms. His left eye was completely scratched out, and a scar shaped like an X crossed the empty socket. Whatever had happened to him had been going on for a very long time.

He had not woken up yet, and had barely moved around. He had tossed and turned a little bit, along with the occasional whimper accompanying it, but he remained like this.

Unfortunately for Mabel's excitement, there was nothing to do in the room that she had not done already at least that she could do while keeping quiet. Waddles was sleeping on the bed, curled up next to the man for warmth. Mabel hoped he didn't mind that, because she could not get the pig to even budge. It was probably better if Candy and Grenda were not over here to distract her. Wendy wouldn't be working a shift until Saturday. She had settled for knitting, but that was beyond boring at the moment. Her latest sweater creation could wait.

A louder whimper broke through her bored train of thought. Suddenly, the man started to stir, he was waking up! She jumped to her feet with an excited squeal. Then, she pulled out a walkie talkie she had and called Dipper.

"Dipper! Is the tour over yet?"

It took a moment for him to reply though all of the static.

"I just brought them into the gift shop again. What is it?"

"He's up!" Mabel said.

"Hold on! I'm coming!"

He shortly appeared, huffing and puffing after running through the Mystery Shack. In this time, the man was coherent. He blearily opened his good eye, trying to make heads or tails of his fate. It wasn't the dark. He was laying on something soft. But something was pinning down his legs! The man gave an alarmed squeak, pushing away the thing on his legs. Waddles gave a discontent snuffle, and leaped off of the bed.

"I guess he doesn't like pigs." Mabel said.

His attention instantly focused on the voice's source. It was a young woman, with brown hair who was looking at him. Her male counterpart was standing there too. His eyes widened, and he gave another squeak. The man did his best to press himself against the wall, to seem tiny. Dipper and Mabel both shared a questioning look, as they wondered what was wrong with the man.

"Are you ok?" Dipper asked in a soft but clear voice.

Because the man did not reply, Dipper knew to move on and try a few different languages.

"Ese-ce-que vous parle française?"

The man's eye only grew wider, as he futilely tried to hide himself.

"Esperanto? Comprendo l'Espagnole? Latin?"

Dipper went through a host of different languages, all the ones he and Mabel had heard monsters speak over the years. Mabel eagerly suggested some, occasionally chiming in with a sentence or two. It was surprising how you could pick up key phrases from any language, just by talking and meeting with the monsters of Gravity Falls.

"Did you try Pig Latin?" The brunette offered.

"No, not yet." He replied. "Anc ouy nderstandu em?"

Like all of the others, it was met with no response.

"That's it! Backwards people language! Like those inside-out monsters!"

Dipper searched through his bed and all the papers on it until he had found his tape recorder. He said something, and then played it backwards for the man. Still, all of their efforts were for nothing as he looked no less scared. What could have they possibly missed? They had tried everything under the sun! Every spoken language they had ever-

"Maybe he's deaf!' The young man realized.

He quickly scrambled to get a paper that could be written on and a pen that had not been bitten in half as he chewed on it. From there he wrote greetings in all the languages they had gone over. when he tried to hand the paper and the pen to the man, he squeaked and scrambled to get away from his hands.

Dipper was surprised by the fear he got in response, and dropped the notebook and pen. Both twins remained focused on the other man, trying to figure out how to get him to look at the notebook. Dipper saw how wearily the man eyed the both of them, obviously frightened and mistrustful of them.

He gestured for his sister to look away from the man. They both did so, pretending to focus on other aspects of the room. Mabel stared to pet Waddles, while Dipper picked up a book and sat down facing around from the man. A few tense minutes passed by, with the twins waiting for the man to react. Eventually, he did. Dipper heard him click the pen, and a slight rustling of paper.

Slowly, he turned around to see what he had done. The paper had been pushed to the edge of the bed, along with the pen. The man was intently staring at the pen and paper. He shrunk away from Dipper's hand, and the Mystery Twin gave him a funny look before reading the paper. The phrase "can you understand this" was circled, and something was written underneath it in what was clearly a shaky hand.

_Throat hurts. Can't speak. Pain. Am I dead?_

"You're mute..." Dipper quietly said, eyes straying to his throat.

The young man gave a gasp as he only now saw it. Just poking beneath the collar of his raggity shirt was a long, neat scar. It stood out as a dark pink against his sickly yellowish flesh. It trailed up along his neck in a triangular path. A second one seemed to form an X. No, not an X, a bow tie...

"You're not dead silly!" Mabel said, oblivious to Dipper's revelation. "We saved you from Bill! Unless you didn't need saving from him, but you kinda' look like a mess so we're probably justified in our actions! Not all guys seem to appreciate me rescuing them from their girlfriends though! At least you're cool with this!"

The man was not ashamed to say to think that he understood none of what she had said. Safe from Bill? Not likely. The demon was going to be mad when he returned. Why he had not already come after him was a mystery. He flinched as the Pine Tree pushed his sibling and stated;

"Mabel, he's traumatized! You can't treat him like another one of your thousand guys!"

Mabel just got to her feet and brushed herself off. She chose to ignore his remark, and instead asked the lost soul;

"So what's your name?"

_I don't remember any more._

"Hah! You don't want to know that!" Bill said from behind them. "Trust me, it's _pretty embarrassing_!"

"Bill!" Dipper and Mabel simeltanously said.

The demon broke in to a round of laughter at their surprise as the colour drained from the world. The man squeaked in fear, and scrambled to hide under Mabel's bed. He cowered in his spot, much too afraid.

He was going back. They would put him back in the dark again. Already he could feel the pain he would experience once he was back. The taunting, the voices. Horrible voices. They had made it worse, always made it worse! Lying and tricking him, they only ever made it worse! There was just too much pain and torment, there was just too much of it! Scared of the consequences, he started to cry. His master would not be happy with him. Punishment was so much worse than the little "games" the demon liked to play. He just wanted to die already.

"That's my name! At least it's not embarrassing like little Winnie's is!"

Mabel had to fight back a laugh at this.

"Pffft! Winnie? What kind of a name is- I mean it's a very handsome name! At least it's more dignified than your name _Billy! _"

Bill was silent for a moment. He couldn't find a retort! He had been stumped by some kid calling him Billy! Mabel made a point of snapping her fingers and tossing her hair, and gave smirk that would put Pacifica to shame.

"Oh yeah!" Mabel cheered.

"W-well at least I'm not named after a tree!"

"Uhhh, my name isn't Maple... It's Mabel."

The demon looked at her in what must have been surprise. Was she serious?! Her name was Mabel?! Who named their child Mabel?! It made so much more sense for her to be Maple! The Pine Tree and the Maple Tree! He had thought that it was Maple all these years! The All-Seeing Eye decided it was probably best if he acted like he had not heard the insult.

"Look kid, just give me back Winnie here, and I'll scram."

"Oh because I'm sure you'll just leave us alone after exorcising you from this guy." Dipper scoffed. "What are you going to open your own line of cologne too?"

"Hmmm... Not a bad idea. Perhaps I'll start up on that once I've killed you and gotten my vessel back."

"Nice try! You can't even touch us without him!"

"Well, for now." The demon agreed. "But once your sixteen weeks are up you can guarantee that I will. So perhaps it's best if you give. Back. My. Vessel."

"Leave him alone!" Mabel shouted. "He doesn't want to be near you, you weird, yellow, triangle... Thing!"

The demon ignored them, in favour of turning to the man, who was quietly crying underneath Mabel's bed. It was strange to watch as the triangle bent at an odd angle so he was eye-to-eye with the helpless man.

"Winnie." He commanded in a tone like that which a parent would use. "Get out from there."

He was only met with a quiet whimper. The demon felt his already shortening temper start to burn. How dare he not listen to him?!

"Winston!" The All-Seeing Eye hissed, no longer using teasing nick-names. "You will obey my words, you will listen to your master."

He continued speaking in this hypnotizing tone until Winston had crept closer to the edge of the bed, his face now visible by the side. Once he was close enough, the demon made a grab for his neck with the intent of strangling him all the way back to the dreamscape. But he was too quick with his actions, and Winston hesitantly pulled himself away. The man's instincts told him to stay as far away as he could from the demon. The compulsion in his tormentor's voice grew stronger, as he did his best to lull him in to a mindless hypnotic state. It was so hard to fight off the commanding voice of his master, the threats becoming more evident as time passed on.

The longer he remained hidden, the worse he would suffer once there was nothing to interrupt them. Being toyed with for the demon's amusement was one thing, but punishment was another. He didn't want to be punished again. He knew that he should just obey and get it over with, but at the same time he didn't want to. The man wondered what had happened to the twins, and why they were not doing anything. His question was answered as Bill was suddenly flattened to the ground.

"Hey!" Bill complained. "Let me up!"

"If you insist." Mabel grinned.

The demon tried to push himself off the ground, but couldn't. He was stuck. Mabel picked him up by the hat, and then Dipper opened the back of a picture frame. They stuck the struggling, snarling, dream-demon inside of it.

"Hey! Watch the hat! Don't crumple my tie!"

Bill glared at the twins from behind the glass of the picture frame. His voice came out slightly muffled from behind the glass, but he still said;

"Let me out of here and I'll let you die quick deaths!"

"Or we could not let you out of here, and advertise you as the latest Mystery Shack attraction." Dipper suggested.

Mabel beamed at the idea.

"Yeah! And we could charge people five bucks a piece to tap on the glass!"

"We'd call it Cursed Math Homework!" Dipper said, spreading his arm in a panorama.

"No, wait, Curse of the Living Corn Chip!"

"When Triangles Attack!"

"You're not calling it any of those things because I'm outta' here!"

The demon managed the break out of the picture frame, as the shared dream they had all been through ended.

"I'll be back." He warned. "And you're going to meet a fate worse than little Winnie here will!"

* * *

><p>All three of them awoke with a start at the same time. Dipper and Mabel were still standing in their bedroom, and Winston remained hidden underneath Mabel's bed. Both twins shook their heads and stretched, not particularly phased by the demon's threats.<p>

Winston on the other hand would not come out from underneath the bed. He was still too scared to do so, afraid by what might happen if he got out from the safety of the bed's shelter. If he left, the demon would be there. He was going to be very mad at him. Very unhappy. The pain would come back. He didn't want to go back there, he wouldn't go back! He was afraid to crawl back out there. What if he was out there? Waiting for him? Waiting for him to trip up? The feeling of being watched by something or someone was present. He was waiting for him to leave the safety of underneath the bed so he could grab him, drag him back by the hair. He wouldn't go back there!

The Pine Tree eventually gave a sigh, realizing that he had to go. He left the room then. Winston was able to relax a little more with less people in the room. Still there was the The other one, Maple too. She was also in the room. He could hear her breathing. He did not know what she was doing. But, he could see her legs and feet from his tucked away spot. They moved around the room a little bit from between the two beds, but never left the room. She was going to do something. He knew it.

Maple's legs disappeared from view. The bed gave a tremendous squeak from above him and he squeaked just as loudly. She was on the bed now. For a moment, he thought that the bed would collapse and crush him from the way it squeaked and groaned. Nothing happened. It settled back after, things were quiet. Something dropped to the floor. He flinched. But it was only a ball of yarn. A nice neutral green in colour. It looked very soft. He reached out to touch it, but withdrew his hand as Maple picked it up before him. In her hand was something odd. A coloured piece of plastic that looked pointed at one end. A Knitting needle! She knitted? Something about the idea of her knitting was comforting...

Little clicking sounds began, confirming his suspicions. He curled up a little bit, feeling reassured by the wall behind him and to his side, along with the bed on top. He was sheltered. He was safe. Although the area under the bed was a bit dusty. It make his nose feel ticklish. The floor under the bed was rather rough, and splintery, but it was at least warm. In the dark it was always cold and terrible, unforgiving.

Between the gentle warmth under the bed, and the clicking of Mabel's needles, Winston slowly started to drift off in to a mercifully nightmare-free sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Another chapter up! I'm glad so many of you liked the little Mabel/Maple thing! I thought it would be funny if the "all-knowing" dream-demon thought that her name was Maple instead of Mabel, just like Soos! The names Winston picks for everyone are the first things he hears them being addressed as, thus the strange names. But all of them are easy enough to- wait for it- deCIPHER! Ha! Stress because of exams makes me hilarious!**

**Read, review (Please.), and enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p>Winston did not sleep very long, only until the later part of the evening as a quiet snuffling sound came closer to him. His eye shot open, and he very nearly crashed his head against the bottom of the bed. A pink nose was decisively too close to comfort in front of his face.<p>

It was the pig from before, the same one who had been sleeping on his legs. The pig was not bad. It didn't cause pain, and it wasn't very loud. It hadn't wanted to hurt him at all. Thus, Winston decided that the pig was good. He let it come closer to him. It curiously crawled forwards on it's chubby belly, and began to inspect his head. The man winced as it put it's snout right against his ear, and tried to push it away. But after a moment, the pig went on to nosing around his hair. Once or twice, the pig gave his white hair a lick. His tongue was very slobbery, but it was warm too.

But the pig was evidently satisfied with him now, and decided that being pushed away was a one-time thing. The pig squeezed himself closer to the man, and spread out by his unguarded side, the one that did not have a wall for it to be against. He needed to see out from underneath the bed, but the rest of him would remain vulnerable otherwise. He was grateful for the pig, and cautiously placed a hand on his back.

They lay hidden in the shady parts under the bed for a few more minutes, five at most. But the door to the bedroom opened, and a pair of feet wearing pink flip flops strode in. The loud voice of Maple caused him to jump up in surprise. He didn't like loud noises. They were bad. The would hurt him. The ones that were inside of his head were especially bad. Bill put them there every time he made him watch what they did to others.

"Here piggy, piggy, piggy!" Said Maple. "Where did you run off to?"

_"The pig's name is Piggy." _He realized.

Piggy's ears perked up at the sound of his name. There was the sound of something being rustled around, which made the pig come out of his place from underneath the bed. Maple patted Piggy on the head, and handed something to him. A little golden-brown coin-shaped thing. The pig took it in his mouth, and happily munched away on it with a few crunches.

Winston's stomach growled rather loudly. Hungry. He wanted food.

Mabel heard this, and only now remembered that Winston was still under her bed. She had just gotten off of her shift at the register, and had come in search of her beloved pig. The brunette handed Waddles a few more of the Chipackers to Waddles, and then dropped the floor. Giving a smile, the young woman said;

"Hey there!"

He in turn whimpered, not liking the loudness of her voice. Maple seemed to get this, and did her best to lower her voice.

"Hey there! What are you still doing under the bed?"

She tried to reach for Winston, but he cowered farther back. After a moment's pause, she offered Winston one of the chip-flavoured crackers. He refused to take it from her hand though, and his one good eye narrowed in suspicion. She set it down on the ground, right in front of his face. But he would still not take it. Being crouched on the ground got to her knees for a moment, so she stood and go rid of the buzzing feeling in them. As soon as she was not there looking at him, Mabel heard him crunch down on the chip-flavoured cracker.

A smile spread across her face, as an idea came to mind. It would take some waiting, and Waddles would have to be kept out of the room as she gave away his favourite salty snacks to someone else, but it was possible. She sent her pig after Stan, knowing that he would be locking up for the day, and would then go off to watch TV. Waddles would join him to watch the soap operas that came on then.

Now, the young woman carefully got on to her bed, trying to not make much noise. Winston did not seem to like excessive noise very much, and the bed springs very, very squeaky. She lay down on her belly along the width of the bed. Mabel had to fold back her legs because of the wall, but this was not much of a problem. Carefully, she fished through the box until she had gotten a whole Chipacker. Then, Mabel carefully placed it under the bed, pushing it forwards with her hand a little, as close at it could go.

There was a pause of quiet, followed by a small crunch. Mabel smiled. She took out another chip-flavoured cracker, and placed it under the bed. Only this time, she did not put it all the way. Unable to see, she guessed it was at least an inch closer to the edge of the bed. She repeated the process, putting this one another inch closer to the edge of the bed. She did this three more times, until there was a cracker now placed just beyond the safely of the bed.

A pale hand reached out, and then snatched the cracker. The sound of Winston eating it followed. Mabel put another one just a little ways farther. He was able to reach this one too though. Determined to make Winston come out of his hiding place, she stretched as far as she possibly could without falling off of the bed and put it there.

Winston took longer this time. Like a turtle poking it's head out of it's shell, he did so slowly. She saw his nose first. This was followed by the rest of his head. The man wriggled out by the shoulders. Slowly, more of his back and rags for a shirt began to show. His legs followed, and eventually all but his feet were visible.

She held her breath, not daring to make a sound as he picked up the farthest cracker and quickly devour it in full sight. Winston waited for another cracker to appear in front of him, but none did. He gave a sad whine as he realized this. He was still hungry, he wanted more. He turned around, planning to crawl back in to his nest.

Then he saw the young woman on the bed, holding the food. His heart seemed to freeze, and his first instinct was to run and hide. But, she slowly held out one of the Chipackers to him. Winston could not resist the temptation. He reached out and snatched it from her hand, scarffing it down lest something took it from him.

Maple held out another one. He took that too, snatching it away in the same fashion. They continued like this until he didn't feel hungry anymore. In this time, he had steadily come closer to Maple until she could have hurt him if he wanted to. She didn't, and instead let him take crackers from the box himself until he was satisfied.

Thirsty. A dry sensation filled his mouth. It felt like he had eaten all of the dust under the bed as well. He needed something to drink. Winston was surprised as Maple seemed to know this. She already had a glass of water, and gave it to him.

She offered to feed the water to him, unsure if he knew how to drink from a glass or not. But he took it from her and drank until it was empty. Once it was, he handed it back to her. Mabel smiled, happy to know that he had come out from under the bed. A funny look came over Winston's face though, and he shifted awkwardly on the floor.

"Oh." She blushed. "Do you need the washroom?"

To her surprise, Winston understood the question, and got to his feet with a nod. Mabel did to, and carefully guided him to the upstairs bathroom. She did not fail to notice that the lost soul walked with a pained-looking limp in his right leg. She showed him the washroom, but paused as she wondered if Winston knew how to... Well, that was a job for Dipper! They had the same plumbing after all!

But as she attempted to follow Winston into the washroom, he placed a hand on her chest, telling her to stop. He closed the door, and she heard him lock it shut. Mabel ignored any other sounds after that, choosing to blush a bright pink instead. Winston soon returned, and scurried back to her bedroom, evidently feeling to exposed in the unfamiliar hall. Still, the young woman gave a smile, considering the first endeavor a sucess.

* * *

><p>Night fell. It was dark. He did not like being in the dark. Piggy was up on bed with Maple, he was left all alone to fend for himself in his nest. Winston did not like this. He did his best to not make any noise, otherwise the things in the dark would hear him. He knew that Maple and Piggy were sleeping above him. They were both good...<p>

Winston stealthily pulled himself out from underneath the bed. He crawled on to her bed and curled up new to her feet. Waddles snuggled closer to him as well, and the dark did not feel nearly as imposing with the two in bed with him...

* * *

><p>Mabel groaned as Dipper's alarm rang the next morning. Tossing and turning in her bed, she began to become comfy once more. But someone started to shake her shoulders, trying to wake her up. Work already? She had felt like she had gotten no sleep at all! Mabel moaned in to one of her many pillows;<p>

"Just a few more years."

She continued to be shaken, which did practically nothing until Mabel remembered that Dipper always woke up before the alarm, he was an early riser. She on the other hand preferred to spend all of her time in bed during the morning. Anything before ten o'clock was considered an ungodly time to wake up at.

Mabel's eyes now snapped open, and she was surprised to find herself staring in to an unfamiliar single yellowish-brown eye. It took a moment for her to realize it was Winston. It took yet another moment for her to scream, as the surprise took over her. Winston yelped and tumbled off of the bed at her scream, scrambling back to his retreat under her bed.

Both Dipper and Stan came running to the room, wondering and fearing the reason for Mabel's screams. They fought each other to get through the door, trying to see the young woman.

"Sweet Moses kid! What was that about?" Stan asked, seeing how nothing was wrong with Mabel.

She could not help but blush as she explained why.

"Winston woke me up, I just wasn't expecting it."

"Winston." Stan mused. "That's the guy who you two-"

"Yes." Dipper agreed.

Stan gave a smile at this. Rubbing his hands together, he said;

"Where is my new slave la- new employee?"

"Under the bed." Mabel said, lowering her voice.

"Why's he there?"

"Well Grunkle Stan, he's not really well right now. He's afraid of everything."

The greedy smile on his face faded at this.

"Great, you two promise me a worker and I get a mouse!"

"We can't just leave him on his own!" Mabel insisted. "He's hurt!"

"He's not a stray dog Mabel, we can't just keep some guy here because of that!"

"He can work Stan! We'll find a job for him!" She continued. "Right Dipper?"

Dipper looked down at the spot where Winston was currently hiding. As far as he knew, the man had not come out of his recluse since Bill had shown up. How was he supposed to do anything if he was still much to shy to leave his little hide away?

"I don't know Mabel..." He mused.

The brunette looked at both her relatives in shock. They really had that little faith in this? In her own skills? Didn't they want Winston to get better? She would get them to come around of course, but she had hoped that the extra persuasion on her part would not be necessary. That just showed how wrong she was on the matter.

"Fine!" She snapped. "I'll show you!"

With that, she rather fiercely pushed the two of them out and slammed the door. Which she instantly regretted, as Winston did not like loud noises. The young woman had to take a few calming breaths after that, not wanting to snap at Winston as well. She knew that the white-haired man would already be scared, having run away to hide again.

She laid down on her belly, so that the man could see all of her. Then she slowly approached Winston, knowing that he would be watching every one of her moves. She crawled forwards on her stomach until she was facing Winston. She could see the man wearily staring at her, wondering what she was doing. Mabel did not try to touch him, or make too much eye contact. She knew that wild animals didn't like that, and no matter what Stan said, Winston did act like some kind of stray creature. There was still salvageable parts of him though, he just needed to be feel safe.

"You can come out." Mabel tried to reassure. "They're gone now."

Mabel was surprised to hear him sniffle a little bit. The man she had originally thought to be mute whispered in a throaty, raspy voice that was barely audible;

"M-M-Ma... P-ple."

"Do you mean Mabel?" She softly asked.

"M-Maple and P-Pine T-T-Tree." Winston said in a whisper, just as surprised to hear himself speaking.

The young woman had to stifle a giggle as she realized what the man meant. He thought her name was Maple, just like Bill! And the demon had called her brother a Pine Tree in front of Winston. He thought their names were after the trees!

"No, I'm Mabel." She insisted in a firm voice.

"Maple." The white-haired man replied, his voice growing stronger.

"Ma. Bel." She stretched.

"Ma. Ple." He repeated. "Y-you're Maple. I'm Bill."

"No! You're Winston! I'm Maple! I mean Mabel- no!" She sighed, knowing that she was getting nowhere with the conversation.

"I'm not Mabel." He nodded in understanding. "I'm Winston."

"Well at least _one _of us knows who we are. Now let's go get you ready for work!"

Winston willingly came out from his recluse under the bed, and was fine with following her back to the bathroom, as he now knew the way there. Winston needed a bath, and some new clothes. Right now the man was not too dirty-looking, but the yellow parlor of his skin was an indication of him being unhealthy. Besides, he would probably appreciate the feeling of cleanliness again. Mabel pointed to the bathtub faucet, and then then to her ear, indicating there would be a little bit of noise as the water ran. He understood this, and covered his ears during the first few seconds of her running the water. After a while, he removed one hand, followed by the other and was comfortable enough with the noise.

"Is the water fine?" Mabel asked.

Placing a cautious hand in the running water, he nodded. The old bathtub was soon filled completely with water, and a large layer of bubbles. You couldn't have a bath without bubbles, that was completely criminal. Mabel planned to help Winston out of his clothes, but again he pressed a hand to her chest and covered his own eyes. Feeling a bit embarrassed by the whole situation, she turned around and waited until she was certain he was in the tub to look back. The thick layer of bubbles did it's job, and she was not able to see anything below the man's waist.

"Uh er... Do you need help with anything?" She quietly asked.

Winston shook his head.

_"I'm not a child, I know how to do these things."_

"Well, I'll just leave you to it." The young woman blushed.

She left the room twice, coming back with towels for him, and clothes. She had "borrowed" a pair of grey shorts from Dipper, along with one of his rare, not orange t-shirts. It was a light green, and Dipper only owned it because she had given it in an effort to spice up his fashion. Dipper's version of spicing up his fashion was wearing clean socks. She'd also found a new package of boxers which had yet to be opened. No one deserved to be subjected to Dipper's underwear.

Mabel brought the whole package so Winston could decide what he wanted to wear, and she wouldn't have the mental image of what he was wearing underneath burned in to her mind. It was probably best if he just kept the whole pack, as it wasn't like her brother would ever notice he actually owned more than two pairs of boxers.

Winston finished up and quickly got dressed, he met Mabel outside of the bathroom, and was running a hand through his wet hair as he tried to tease out a few of the knots in it. Mabel found him a comb, and let the man run it through his hair until the white fluff was considerably less tangled and wild. It was a bit long, but so was Dipper's. Inspecting his hair, she was happy to find some of the hair around his roots was turning blond. Gideon Gleeful white wasn't his natural colour after all, it had been turned stark white from shock.

They now went downstairs, Winston following behind her every step of the way as he took in everything in with nervous apprehension. The downstairs was lot like the attic, and the bathroom. The floors were all made of the same, rough, splinter-hazard boards. There was the occasional bit of ancient carpet in the hallway or one of the rooms they passed, but they were all pressed flat and looked very hard. There were no stop of odd things throughout the house as well. In the living room, there was what looked like a dinosaur skull. It had to be fake, but it was still surprising. There was a (fake) stuffed dodo bird on a pedestal in a corner near the front door. And that was only the start of it.

Even without all the tourists in the crowed gift shop, it was already an overwhelming place. There was just so much stuff to see and Winston did not know how to react to taking in so many different things. Stan saw the two of them, Winston doing his best to hide behind Mabel despite being taller than her. He clapped a hand on the man's shoulder, which caused him to flinch with a tiny squeak. Stan rolled his eyes at the white-haired man's reaction, and lead the to his office. Mabel sat down, and so did Winston. Stan pulled some files out of his desk, and began;

"Well, according to the law, I'm supposed to ask for some sort of identification. Health card or passport. But because the law is stupid, and the police in this town or idiots, we need neither of those. I'll give you one of my old fake aliases that the police wouldn't be looking for any more."

He waited for his newest slave lab- Valued employee to protest this, whining about the legitimacy of this, and how he would not participate in this sort of crime. Instead, the man gave a nod, seemingly fine with the fraud. Stan grinned at this. So he wasn't afraid to get his hands a little dirty, good...

"So what can ya' do?" The man asked. "You literate at all? What's five squared take away two cubed?"

"He has trouble speaking Grunkle Stan." Mabel interjected. "Give him something to write with."

Stan handed him a pen and spare hydro bill. Winston wrote down the answer (25-8=17) and showed it to him. The grey-haired man asked him more complicated math questions, all of which he could answer after a little bit of thinking. Stan mentally considered having him to all of the financials for the Mystery Shack. Dipper did a good job, but you always had to remind him about the less legal things that had to be taken into consideration. This Winston guy wouldn't mind though.

"Good." He mused. "Write a sentence in printing, and then in cursive."

Winston did so, warming up to writing things down again.

_Is this sentence long enough for you? Should I write more? _

**_Is this sentence long enough for you? Should I write more?_**

His cursive was more wobbly than his printing, but it was still legible.

"Good!" The conman said. "So long as you can glue two objects together, you'll working on our attractions department."

Mabel smiled, glad that Stan had warmed up to the man a bit, even if it was for the profit he could bring. The man tossed Winston a Mystery Shack employee apron, along with an eye-patch to cover his scarred one. He didn't need his eye scaring away customers after all. The thing was horrific, stuff of nightmares! The last thing he needed was some tourist's little brat running of crying because of it. Besides, right now Dipper wore one in while working too, the shiner his eye received that night was a nasty one. It would give everyone a little uniformity. Now if only Soos could wear one without destroying half the Shack without his already lack-luster depth perception...

Winston flinched as both things were tossed at him, but he still did a good job of catching them.

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack."


	4. Chapter 4

**Was I really that obvious when it came to some of the strange similarities between Winston and Old Man McGucket? Oh well, I suppose that was the point of the weird hints here and there. Anyways, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p>Winston found that working with the attractions over the next week was not all that bad. As it turned out, he had a knack for creating all sorts of interesting monsters for Stan's tourist trap. What Stan didn't know was that it was't his imagination that had created all the different monsters. On occasion, he would have a nightmare, the monsters and the terrible things he had seen plaguing it. So many terrible things... Horrible monsters, with sharp- gleaming claws and yellow eyes, salivating mouths full of razor-like teeth. So many bad things... But bringing them to life seemed to help. They were not scary when they could not move, and the weird, smelly people who came in to the Shack every day climbed all over them and did terrible things to them.<p>

Maple came into the room, and Winston smiled a bit. But the Pine Tree followed after her, pointedly not looking at him. He liked Maple a lot. She was nice, even if there was the occasional moment where she would treat him like a child and end up getting flustered. But Maple was good. She did not try to hurt him or speak too loudly. She made sure he got food. She also took him out to get new clothes. She even cleared away the dust under her bed, and put a blanket underneath it so he was not on the floor. She did not mind that he slept on her bed at night with Piggy. He liked Piggy too, he was good like Maple.

The Pine Tree on the other hand didn't like this. When he saw him on Maple's bed in the morning, his eyes narrowed and he said for him to get off of the bed, to leave Maple alone. He did, but Winston still slept on her bed every night. He shivered. The Pine Tree was not like Maple. He glared in his direction, he avoided him at the best of times. Maple's brother acted like he was not there when talking, or scoffed at him. The Pine Tree was not bad, but he was not good either. He was in the middle of the two. The only good thing about him was that he had not tried to hurt him at all. But he was expecting something. He wanted him to do something, at least, he thought so, but he did not know what. The Pine Tree was too confusing, Winston did his best to ignore him as well.

Stan... He was strange too. But not like Pine Tree strange. He acted mean, he acted nice, and then switched again. He could not make heads or tails of his behaviors. He was often happy to see him when at work, and around the house for the most part, but never when Pine Tree and Maple were there. He let Winston sit down on the floor by his feet when he watched TV, so long as he was quiet. He taught him a few card games as well. The man refused to be quiet in front of them though, he said that Winston needed to "man up." He did not know what that meant. Things were usually fine between them.

But if Maple were to come in to the room, he would tell him to go with Maple and leave him alone. The Pine Tree did not seem to like him being near either Stan or Maple. Winston decided that his nice part was the real part, which he tried to keep hidden. So Stan was sort of good.

"Hey Winston." Mabel greeted.

"Maple." He said in greeting.

"Your work is over now, and Dipper and I were going to go out somewhere with you."

Dipper patiently waited as his sister continued to softly talk with Winston. Ever since they had first saved the man, he had been especially attached to Mabel. Everyone in the Shack had made some effort or the other to get along with Winston. Even he had during the first few days, but something about Winston gave him the creeps. Sure it could have been the long scars along his legs and arms, or his X'ed out left eye, forming the insignia of a long destroyed secret society. He had also seen the other long scars along his torso, and neck. His waist and back had perfect pink scars that ran along him in horizontal lines that were perpendicular to each other. In between, there were short vertical lines. They were perfectly smooth, almost like a dark pink brand. They made brick patterns. There were the diagonal slashes along his neck, making a bow-tie.

But that was not what scared him the most. Winston kept the scar on his forehead hidden most of the time. He had only realized that there was a simple eye, much like Bill's, traced out on his forehead. The man kept it hidden, just like the Big Dipper birthmark on his forehead. There was his eye too. The left eye of his that was missing, the fact that his own left eye was currently black and swollen (It was taking an odd amount of time to heal.) Sent shivers down his spine. Bill had done all those terrible things to the man while either being in his body, or the man being trapped in his own mind. They had yet to figure out anything that had happened to the man.

It was like the day of the Sock Opera. Only worse because it was not just a day for Winston. It was years. Winston knew about electricity, running water, and television, so he could not be all that old. A century at the most. A century being tormented for a demon's sadistic enjoyment, as he used him to stay tied to the planet. He could have taken Winston's place instead, if the demon had finally killed him, gotten bored of the same old same old. A new plaything...

This was why they had to find a way to stop Bill. One week had already passed by. That meant that- Divide one by sixteen, move the decimal two places to the right... 6.25% of their time was up! That was nearly a tenth of their time! And a tenth was nearly a third and a third was nearly a half and a half was nearly three quarters and three quarters was nearly one hundred and their time would then be up!

"Dipper, are you even paying attention?" Mabel asked, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "We're going now!"

"Huh? What? Yeah?"

Mabel rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips.

"Of course you were. Now come on, McGucket's always at the diner this time in the afternoon!"

Dipper nodded, following his sister and Winston out of the Mystery Shack. The brunette skipped ahead of him, happily chattering with Winston as they headed in to town. Winston would reply with the occasional word, or nod, mainly keeping fixed on anything that came in their direction. He was obviously ready to flee at a moment's notice. Mabel understood this and grabbed Winston's hand, reassuring the white-haired man that he was going to be fine.

Dipper felt an odd pang in his stomach, watching his sister run ahead with Winston and performing her usual antics. It was always him that she used to bother and playfully talk with as they went on an adventure. She was the one to distract him from whatever thoughts might be going through his mind at the time. Not Winston!

The trip to the diner seemed to drag on for Dipper as his sister and the other man quickly walked ahead of him. It was only five minutes, but it was very long five minutes, and he was starting to grow more irate with the duo as they walked ahead of him. Winston wasn't even able to keep up with his sister! The painful-looking limp he had only seemed to grow worse, yet he continued to trail after her like an eager little love-sick puppy-dog. The only reason why they were going to the diner was because Old Man McGucket frequented the greasy restaurant.

It was originally Dipper's idea to look for Old Man McGucket, because the man reminded him of something. The animal-like behaviors, and some human capabilities reminded him of Winston, who acted like a somewhat more sane version of the elderly man, even if he was more shy. Dipper wondered if there would be a solid way for them to communicate, asides from the occasional word, or written sentence.

If they could find an easy way to talk with Winston, many of their question could be answered. He had been in the demon's mind, or visa-versa. But either way, he would have picked up thing or two from spending so much time inside of his mind. He might know about some sort of weakness, what his plans for the world really were, why things were always so weird in Gravity Falls. There had to be answers of some sort, and Dipper wanted to know what they were.

It was not difficult to find the elderly man, they just had to look for the most commotion and animal sounds and they had their man. McGucket was on top of the rotating pie plate in the diner, confusedly trying to get the spinning to stop. But Lazy Susan wanted to keep the man on top of it, because his weight somehow pushed it back in to working again, but only when he sat on top of it. The man had been chased back up the spot multiple times, unable to escape the clutches of Lazy Susan. Once the trio opened the door, the inventor saw his escape and scampered outside.

"Who hoo! I haven't been this free since I sewed me overalls on backwards!" Old Man McGucket said.

Dipper was the first to break the odd silence that followed the man's nonsensical words.

"Uh, Old Man McGucket, there's someone we'd like you to meet."

The elderly man turned to face the trio, and a strange look came over his face. He recognized the two kids, the Pine Tree and the Shooting Star, but that other one, with the white hair, a familiar eye carved in to his forehead... That eye, it was;

"IT'S THE TRIANGLE!" The elderly inventor screamed.

Dipper and Mabel both shared a look at this. Winston seemed to understand why the man was freaking out, and did the best to flatten the front of his hair over the eye, and pull up his collar so no one could see the bow tie that had been cut in to his throat. Once both reminders were gone the elderly man calmed down. He experimentally removed a hand from in front of his forehead. Winston flinched as the old man's screaming started again, promptly covering his forehead again.

Sufficiently calmed down, the other man started his rounds, circling around Winston as he curiously inspected him. The man saw the Pine Tree and Maple out of the corner of his eyes, and something about the Pine Tree's expression bothered him. Winston realized that he looked triumphant, and a little bit hopeful. A few wild guesses on why rattled through his mind before a conclusion was drawn. They thought he was like this other man, and hoped that maybe they could talk or get along! Winston bristled at the thought of being compared to this crazy old man. Insulting!

_"Treating me like a dog!" _He internally growled to himself.

The Pine Tree thought that he was like some sort of wild animal, that he was too weakened to be human! He was a person! Wasn't he? Voices and torment seemed to come back at this, telling him the answer he did not want to hear from them.

_"You're not real any more. Winnie!"_

_"You were never even real to begin with you pitiful creature."_

_"Disgusting beast."_

_"It'd be so much more easy to put him down in an inhu- Humane way."_

_"Pathetic being. What tiny little screams you have."_

_"Insignificant speck."_

_"Not even that!"_

_"Even your puny screams get boring after a while."_

_"Animal."_

Winston voiced his displeasure this time with a low growl, letting the threat drown out the voices. The old man was taken aback by this. Just to make a point, he took a step away from the elderly man. All it took was the reveal of his scars once more to send the other man screaming and scampering away for good this time. The twins now closed the original distance that had been between them at the time, not expecting to get either of those reactions from Winston. The man was not so much mad at Maple as he was with the Pine Tree, as this was obviously his idea by the way he reacted to it. It was the Pine Tree's fault, because he didn't think of him as person! Maple spoke first, in an irritatingly patronizing and sweet voice;

"What's wrong buddy?"

His yellow gaze focused on her, glaring until she got the message. Her brother pulled her back, no doubt afraid that he might snap at Maple. That would be bad though. Winston knew that he didn't want to get angry with Maple. Getting hurt was bad. He knew better than to fight back because fighting back was bad. It caused pain. His first memories were blurred, but Winston knew that he had fought back a long time ago. It ended badly, he knew that it would end badly and so it was best to not do anything else to show his displeasure. Instead he moved away as well, knowing that moving away made him look smaller and more harmless.

"I guess he didn't like him." Mabel shrugged, as if it was no big deal.

"Yes, interesting." Dipper mused.

Winston really disliked the young man's patronizing of him, speaking in terms like he was some sort of test subject. He now focused his unblinking stare on him, ready to warn him about what he was doing if necessary. Mabel caught the man's glaring, and she strung together that with a few other reactions she had gotten out of him before.

"Dipper!" She hissed out of the corner of her mouth. "He doesn't like being talked down to, like one of your supernatural creatures or experiments."

Dipper seemed to grasp this, and nodded with a slight frown. He was going to find it a bit difficult to act properly around Winston. Doing her best to change the subject, Mabel said;

"Let's get something to eat at the diner while we're here!"

"I don't have my wallet." Dipper said.

"Relax! We'll just put it on Stan's tab!" Mabel waved off.

Dipper snorted, knowing full well that Stan's "tab" was stuff he would never pay for, and hoped he could get away with by playing the forgetful old man card. Still, the trio went in to the diner and took their seats at the counter, because that was the farthest away from all of the other people who were in the diner. Dipper had to admit that the diner seemed to be timeless. There was still the same sticky smell of the diner's cooking and the soap that was used to wash literally everything in the place. And the Mystery Twin was fairly certain that the raccoon that had originally been living under the table closest to the kitchen when he was twelve had fathered a whole new litter of raccoons that inhabited the very same table.

They picked up the menus that were spread across the counter in a disorganized manner. Out of the corner of his eyes, Dipper began to observe Winston and his reactions to the diner. Disgust filled the subject's face as he picked up the sticky menu covered in peeling laminate. Confusion as he read through the diner specials, probably wondering why; A, why an omelet was a dinner special option. And B, who in their right mind wanted an omelet with coffee in it. Anger when he realized that he was being watched by him like a zoo exhibit. Dipper quickly averted his gaze , trying to seem as nonchalant as possible. Luckily, Mabel pulled away Winston's attention before the man could do anything in retribution.

"The coffee omelet isn't a good option unless you want to be sick. But surprisingly, the salad omelet isn't all that bad according to Pacifica, she's my kinda' sorta' friend. She said that it was 'not completely horrible like she had expected' which is a pretty good reaction to get out of her! Normally she's all surly and mean!"

She kept speaking to Winston, giving all her recommendations. Mabel was glad that Winston was such very good listener. She knew that he was listening because his attention remained focused on her, even if he never really spoke in response at all. Seeing how she loved to talk, they were the perfect combination! Even with her voice considerably more soft than usual, she was still pretty loud. But the man was handling everything in the diner really well. Seeming a bit apprehensive, but not by much considering what he had first been like. This was just proving perfectly to Dipper that Winston could get better and was not a wast of effort and time that they should just rid themselves of. After all, what were they supposed to do with Winston? Dump him off at the police station and have him become ward of the state? That would never work. Bill would just come back after their sixteen weeks were up...

"-So I would recommend the blueberry pancakes! You like blueberries right? You're not allergic to them or anything? Do you have any allergies? What about nuts? Well I know that you're not allergic to dust but-"

"Do you _ever _shut up?" Bill asked.

"BILL!" Dipper and Mabel said at the same time, jumping to their feet.

To their surprise, they did not see the demon anywhere. And having learned from last time, not only was the rest of the world frozen, their feet were somehow stuck to the ground. It was only when Winston turned around in his seat that they realized the demon was inside of his body. His pupil had been reduced to a cat-like slit, and the unnatural smile that was spread across the man's face was almost painful to look at. Dipper shuddered, thinking back to the events at Mabel's sock opera.

"Who were you expecting? The Easter Bunny?"

"Why are you back here?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah!" Mabel agreed. "Get hobby already! And get out of Winston's body you evil body-snatcher triangle-monster THING!"

"Hah! Like that's going to happen! This body belongs to _me_, I'm fully allowed to take over a human body that belongs to _me _ and do whatever I want to it."

"His body doesn't belong to you! He's his own person!"

His twisted grin became larger at this.

"This body's completely one hundred percent mine!" He contradicted.

Just to make a point, the demon picked up a butter knife and made several (Fruitless.) Attempts to slice open his (Or was it Winston's?) Hand. Dipper and Mabel were left helpless as they watched him do so.

"Don't do that to him you creep!"

"Yeah!"

"Just learn how to knit already! Take you your frustrations on the yarn!"

"What kind of looser knits?" Bill snorted.

Mabel glared at him.

"This looser does you- uh... Terrible-fashion-sensed-literally-two-dimensional-bright-yellow-squeaky-voiced-really-short-piñata who doesn't have a life!"

Bill understood none of what Mabel said, so he was just going to take that as a compliment a continue writing on his body's hand with the butter knife. He moved on to terrorizing all of the frozen patrons of the diner, spilling food and trays, taking one the frozen kitchen pests and putting it in another person's food. All the way through his havoc-wreaking, the twins protested and yelled at him every step of the way.

"Hey look, no hands!"

Bill went from terrorizing people to spinning around on one of the diner's stools, only to fall off from lack of balance.

"What do you want already?!" Dipper asked.

"My body back." The demon simply replied, getting on his feet again and picking up a bottle ketchup, and pouring it all over himself. "Hey look, I'm bleeding! There's blood and everything!"

"That's ketchup Bill."

"Where'd you leave your sense of humour? I'm starting to think you were born without it!"

Dipper snarled something at him, which the demon also ignored because he was too busy collecting all the forks that their table and poking them in to his arms. Bill was amused to find that with each fork he stuck in to himself, Dipper's arm twitched, and his eyes grew wider.

"Boy this sure does bring back memories doesn't it Pine Tree?" He cheerfully asked, driving another fork with the tines just under the skin on his arm. "It feels like it was just yesterday you were my little puppet!"

"Terrible memories!" Mabel shot back, defending her brother. "And your plans are unoriginal and stupid and predictable!"

"I could bring your worst nightmares to life." Bill offered.

"You've already done that before!" The brunette pointed out.

"Why don't I take over your body instead?"

"You wouldn't be able to handle cramps! Or a sleep over with my friends!"

The demon frowned a little bit at this.

"Well... I could brutally murder everything and anything you've ever come to love."

"Gideon's already tried that."

"Oh... Well that doesn't matter because if I'm so predictable, you would have seen this coming!"

"Seen what coming?" The Mystery Twin asked in confusion.

"THIS!"

Bill drove the fork he was holding straight through his own, or rather Winston's hand. He laughed as both twins gasped, and looked away from the sight of his arm pinned to the table by the fork. With a little wriggling and pulling, he was able to pull the fork out of the table. He curiously rose the hand his face and curiously inspected it from both ends

"Wow, I didn't even know that it was _possible _for a human to do that! And it isn't ketchup this time!" He made point of licking some of the blood on his hand, but made a face. "Gross! Why do vampires like this stuff so much?"

He pulled the fork out of his hand, and showed it to Dipper who winced and looked away, disgusted and scared at the same time.

"L-leave him alone!" Mabel said in shaky voice.

With his uninjured hand, the demon pinched Mabel's cheek.

"L-leave him alone!" The demon mocked. "You two are so adorable!"

"That's a good thing!" Mabel shouted at him, trying to bite his hand. "Just say what you want already and get out of his body!"

For the first time, Bill looked almost annoyed rather than amused. Didn't they ever listen to anything said?! How was it that this kept soaring over their heads? It wasn't like what he was hinting at was hard to pick up.

"For the last time." He repeated. "This. Body. Is. Mine. I don't know how much more clearly I can spell it out for ya'! T-H-I-S. B-O-D-Y. I-S. M-I-N-E."

"You don't own him!" Dipper chimed in.

This was getting painful on his part.

"Story time kiddies!" He sang, before fixing them with steely glare. "Once upon a time, there lived pathetic human man named Winston. And wouldn't you know it, there was demon inside of him named Bill! Surprise, surprise, this is not Winston's body! You know why? Because I _am _Winston, and Winston is me! Thus, if you know how basic ownership works, which come to think of it, you probably don't because you just pulled that journal out of the ground without a care in the world, this is my body! I didn't steal it from anyone, _you _ stole it from me with your cute little rituals, and want it back!"

Dipper felt sick to his stomach as the demon broke in to round of maniacal laughter at the end of his story. The demon's disturbed laughter was almost painful to listen to. And the full meaning of his words finally made sense to him.

"Y-you did this... To yourself?!"

Still chuckling, he cooed;

"Awww, does that bother you? Is the Little Dipper afraid of us? How sweet!"

"S-shut up!" Dipper choked.

The Mystery Twin suddenly felt his personal space breached as the other man leaned closer to him with a sadistic grin spreading across his face. A wave of fear washed over his as he was forced to stare in to the eyes of the monster. He licked his lips as he hungrily stared at his face, causing Dipper to shudder again.

"You know, when I'm finally tired of Winnie here, you'll make great replacement!" Bill mused.

"R-replacement?" He squeaked, wanting nothing more for than him to move away from him.

"What is there an echo in here? A replacement!"

Dipper felt himself being pinched, grabbed, kicked, and groped all over, as the demon made comments on everything and anything within reach. Which was to say, all of him. His hands were freezing, and would switch back between being harsh and soft with their actions. Fingers raked through his hair, their nails digging in to his scalp before suddenly starting to pet his hair. His arms were twisted in a variety of painful, twists and positions till they were nearly dislocated. Yet the worst was to come as another clammy hand wandered under his shirt, pants. His tormentor's eye grew wide in surprise for a second, but it morphed back in to his usual grin. He gave a chuckle as Dipper tried to resist, and tickled him under the chin with his free hand.

"Whoa, well I can hardly call you the _Little _Dipper anymore now can I?" He smirked.

He made vulgar comments on anything an everything that he could get his hands on. His words were nastily whispered in to his ears with eager delight at each violating discovery. His tormentor's grating, nasally voice making him feel nauseous as he breathed down his neck and across his lips with each remark. The young man had never felt so helpless against something before and just wanted him to stop.

"Your arms aren't made out of wet noodles any more too! And look at that, you put on some muscle too, I can't see your ribs through your shirt either! What happened to the Little Dipper? You're all grown up! You're the perfect replacement for the boring old body of mine!" Bill finished.

"N-no!" The young man cried in horror.

"Well it's not like there's anything you can do about it!" He laughed. "I've been getting bored with just Winnie here to keep me company. He doesn't have anything left. All his loved ones are gone, his hopes are crushed, and there's nothing he wouldn't submit himself to. There's no fun left in a puppet that won't fight back and keep things interesting. He's completely defeated, and I'm due for a change."

"S-stay away from m-me!" Dipper pleaded.

The yellow glow in Winston's eyes suddenly faded away, and the man dropped to the ground like rag doll. The last thing Dipper saw before everything went dark was shadowy silhouette that drew closer to him. He could only sob, still helpless and paralysed as he felt it's frigid embrace take over his body again. A light-headed giddy sensation filled all of his body as if he was not there at all, and the horrible voice whispered to him;

"You're my next puppet."


	5. Chapter 5

**I got this question a few times, and the unwritten rule is that if one person asks it, five other are thinking it. The more people that ask, the more that are wondering.**

**Was Bill telling the truth when he said he was Winston?**

**As far-fetched as it sounds, Bill was telling the truth as he lectured the twins. Well, he was telling the truth for the most part anyways. Just because the twins didn't ask for certain details, it doesn't make what he told them a lie... They are indeed the same person.**

**Follow up question, is that why there's the MaBill tag?**

**Yes and no. It's a little bit difficult to explain without giving away chunks for the story. Mabel does get together with Winston who is Bill by the barest of technicalities, but at the same point some stuff happens which you'll need to wait and read for yourself.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><em>"You're my next puppet."<em>

"AAAAAAARRRRAAAHHH!"

Dipper awoke with a startled scream, tumbling out of the booth in the diner and on to the floor of the greasy restaurant. Stunned, he could only stare up at the ceiling (And it's many holes.) In shocked relief and silence. It was just a dream. They had not sat down at the counter. There was no one even in the diner because it was the afternoon. It was just a dream. Just. A dream... Then, Mabel and Winston peeked their heads over his field of vision.

"Are you ok bro-bro?" Mabel curiously asked.

"I-I fine." Dipper practically sobbed, his voice breaking.

"Just a weird dream?" The brunette asked, sounding unconvinced.

"Y-yeah Mabel." The young man lied. "Just a weird dream..."

* * *

><p>Just a weird dream that would make him loose sleep for the next two weeks, as he counted down the days until their time was up, and Bill would come back. 19% done if his mental math was working correctly. Which it was of course, dream or not.<p>

_"Actually, it's 18.75%. But I appreciate that you're counting the seconds until I'll be back. Saves me the work of reminding ya'."_

Dipper shuddered, wondering if he had actually heard the demon inside of his head, or if it was simply the lack of sleep. He had been doing his best to stay awake for as long as possible this past little while. He had even opted on taking some of Mabel's advice to skip out on sleeping. He had eaten raw sugar packets, freeze-dried coffee, and even risked a glass of her Mabel Juice. Of course that was only once he had strained out the pulp. And plastic dinosaurs.

Just then, Stan walked in to the room. Taking a look at his great-nephew's face and posture, he knew what was wrong right away.

"Yeesh kid, I thought I told you to get some proper sleep. You look like a nightmare!"

"What?" He asked, rubbing his eyes. "I'm fine, just feeling a little bit slow this morning."

"Alright." He relented. "But if I find you slacking off because of this, I'm docking your pay. It'll make the government's debt look like a two dollar loan."

The Mystery Twin gave a grateful nod at this, and tried to look more alert from his spot at the register. Soon enough, the Mystery Shack was open. The usual tour buses arrived, and Stan led multiple groups on special tours of the place. Mabel and Winston worked at a frantic pace, making more and more attractions, and restocking inventory with whatever happened to be in demand. On occasion, they marked up the prices as well, arguing between each other on what was a suitable number.

Working the register was beyond boring without anything to entertain you. Sure, he had to check out things for the tourists, but once the tour had ended, there was a whole thirty minute wait for the next tour group to reach the gift shop. Mabel wasn't able to keep him company any more either. Usually, the two of them would goof off for a bit with all of the different items that had been crammed in to every nook and cranny. They'd play marbles with all of those glass eye balls, or attempt to find the weirdest possible post card for sale. There were quite a few after all. They would just figure out some way to chase away the boredom!

Only now, his sister was spending more and more of her time with _Winston. _The guy couldn't even say her name right! Dipper was also getting tired of how the guy just followed her around like the world would end if he let Mabel out of his sight! The guy was just getting too dependent on his sister, and he didn't like how that would turn out for Mabel. The Mystery Twin found himself resenting the fact that Mabel had no problem spending more time with some guy than her own brother. He felt jealous and betrayed by the fact. And not to mention, he still couldn't help but see the shadows of what he once was. How could someone, anyone want to do that to themselves?!

Dipper gave an indignant huff, pulling a deck of cards out of his inner vest pocket. He shuffled the deck, and then fanned through the cards. He started to set up a game of solitaire, hoping to stave off the incoming boredom. Dipper remembered all of the little shortcuts and tricks to setting up any games of cards. There were things you did to show off, and then there were things you did to make it look like you were showing off, while in actuality you were switching around cards. Granted, one couldn't really cheat in solitaire, but it was the thought that went in to it. The young man cursed as some of the cards flew out of his hands.

Dipper bent over to pick them all up off of the floor before some rabid dust bunny tried to eat them. No matter how many times he imported dust hounds to take care of the irritating grey bunnies, they always seemed to come back. But, as Dipper reached for a card, something caught his attention. The back's design had a tiny inverted triangle on it, an eye in the centre... Had that always been there?

The eye blinked. Dipper gave a yelp, dropping the car back on the ground. It took him a moment to reach for the card again. With trembling hand, he picked up the card and flipped it over. It was just regular joker card. The young man gave nervous laugh, trying to shake off the weird feeling. He was just tired was all. The twin reached for the other cards on the ground before getting back to his feet.

Bill was leaning on the counter, holding a hand of cards.

"Do you have any jacks?"

The Mystery Twin realized that he had fallen asleep again. This was bad.

"I'll just take that as a go fish." The demon continued, picking up another card from the deck.

Finding his voice, Dipper said;

"This is getting old. What are you doing back here already?"

"Got any sevens?" He asked before continuing. "I thought I'd just check up on my favourite puppet and tell him to get proper sleep."

"I haven't been sleeping because you keep doing stuff like this!" Dipper snarled, gesturing to the dream-Mystery Shack.

Despite Dipper's rising temper, Bill remained collected as ever. Seemingly calm and rational for the briefest of moments.

"I'll assume that was a go fish as well." The demon replied, picking up a different card. "I wouldn't have to keep bothering you in your dreams if you just got some proper sleep before you end up killing yourself. Got any aces?"

"Go fish." Dipper snapped, not caring about the stupid cards.

"I don't think you're playing this right." Bill mused, looking at the three aces Dipper was holding.

"Look man, I don't care! Just leave me alone!"

"No can do. You're prime real estate, and I'm not leaving you alone until you actually sleep."

"I'd sooner die than let you take over my body again! Besides, what's the difference between this me and the twelve-year-old me?" Dipper asked, growing more aggravated.

"Well, for starters-"

Knowing what was going to come next, the Mystery Twin cut in;

"I don't even want to hear out you and your skewed triangle logic. Why don't you just find someone who's actually willing to give up control of their body for something in return? I'm sure that there are plenty of psychos out there who'd do it for free."

Bill gave a fake gasp.

"I'm shocked! How could you just throw some innocent person who was not in their right mental state under the bus like that?" He paused, giving a grin. "I like your cruel streak. Do it again."

"No way man! I'm not doing anything for you! Just get away from me!"

"Awww, come on! It's not going to be all that bad! We'll be roommates! Sharing a bed- I mean head and everything! You won't even know I'm there!" The demon insisted.

"I beg to differ." The Mystery Twin said, crossing his arms. "Just look at what you did to Winston!"

"Winnie never realized that I was inside of his head. We were both perfectly happy!"

"He probably didn't realize it because you're the same person!"

"Ah, so that's finally hit home with ya', hasn't it?"

Dipper shuddered in confirmation. Seeing Winston each and ever time was a reminder of the self-mutilation he had gone through to become the empty shell he was today. What could have driven him to such lengths? What did he even gain from it? Knowing what he was thinking, the demon continued;

"After a little while, ya' get used to it. Soon enough we'll be the same person! No one will be able to tell the difference between us! It'll be great!"

"Great?!" Dipper shrieked. "I don't want to be you!"

"Neither did the others." He shrugged. "But they got over it."

"O-others?!" They Mystery Twin asked, taking steps away from him.

"Oh, I never did enlighten you on that did I? Before I was Winston, I was Damon. And before I was Damon, I was Whitley. And then Demetrius. I was Wiley for a little bit as well. Oh and Dominic always reminded me of you a little bit, he had the most adorable sister named Melissa! And I think Wilfred came before that. We go all the way back to William! All eleven of us! And you'll be the the twelveth one!"

There were more? He wasn't going to be the only one. Winston was only one of the cases. Dipper didn't fail to notice the alternating preference he had between the letters W and D...

"There are eleven of you?"

"Nah, all of them except Winston are dead now, I tend to put 'em down once they're not of any more use. Winnie gets the same once I move in."

"Why me?" The young man pleaded, trying to find some way out of this. "For how long?"

"A century at the most, I've only been with Winnie for six or so decades. You know, come to think of it, I'm surprised Stan didn't recognize him sooner. Then again, there are a lotta' things he doesn't tell you two, so I can't say I'm surprised."

Seeing how Dipper was trying to back farther away from him, Bill floated two steps of his own forwards. This forced Dipper farther backed in to a corner as he tried to stay as far away from the other man. Smiling, he continued;

"I already said why: I like ya', you fall under all of my little criteria as well."

"That's it?!"

"Well." He began, looking thoughtful. "As much as I hate to admit it, you really are too adorable. And you've just got _so _much to loose! I can't wait to destroy everything you've ever cared about to help ya' reach the breaking point. It's just so fun to watch!"

Fear and disgust were obviously evident on Dipper's angelic features. Which he did not mind, seeing as the young man's best attempts to look angry and intimidating were just so cute. He could have kissed him then and there. He made a mental note to use Winnie's body in his nightmares again.

"Why my family?! What do you have against them?!"

"Nothing really." He shrugged. "You guys are a bit annoying sometimes, but you and your sister both are worth the trouble."

"How can you keep doing this to people?!"

"Hey, your sister's the one who told me to get a hobby already! I do have one! As a horrible, sadistic, monster who delights in the slow and painful self-destruction of others. You're just a new project for me once Winnie's all finished up."

"That's it?" Dipper cried. "I'm just a hobby to you?"

"Well a guy's gotta' spend his time doing something! It gets boring in the dreamscape you know!"

The tears in Dipper's eyes threatened to spill over at this, his retreat going no farther than the wall behind him.

"Well, puppet-to-demon I actually do have more plans for you and your family than this, you just happen to be a little side-bonus for my goals."

"Y-you'll never get away with this!" Dipper sobbed. "I'll find a way to s-stop you."

"Hah! Good luck with that!"

"Get away from me!"

"Fine, fine." Bill relented, rolling his eyes. "So long as you promise that you're going to get proper sleep."

"J-just leave m-me a-alone!"

He seemingly turned around to leave; but within the few seconds Dipper got up to his feet, he was suddenly pressed against the wall. The demon leaned to whisper in his ears;

"And I'd advise not telling this to anyone." He subtly threatened. "It would ruin the surprise, ya' know?"

* * *

><p>When Dipper awoke, he found an irritated-looking Stan standing over his head. Subtly trying to brush the rears away from his eyes, Dipper scrambled to his feet.<p>

"Grunkle Stan I-"

"Go to bed." The man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"N-no! I won't go back to bed! I-"

Before the young man could continue with his protesting, Stan suddenly hoisted him on to his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Despite the Mystery Twin's struggles and protests, he was still able to make it up all the stairs to the twin's room. Dipper was unceremoniously dropped in to his bed, and before he could get out of bed to run off, Stan took a roll of duct tape and a blanket. He stretched the quilt as far as it could go, practically pinning the man underneath it. Then Stan taped it like that, before adding on additional blankets to keep him there. Now only Dipper's head stuck out of the layer of blankets. He gave an annoyed sigh, steeling his resolve on not falling back to sleep again.

"Make sure he doesn't leave." Stan said.

Dipper wondered who the man was addressing, until he heard Waddles' feet pattering across the floor, as someone tossed a ball for the pig to fetch. Mabel would have said something already, meaning that it was Winston.

Winston chose to ignore the Pine Tree in favour of tossing the ball back to Piggy, who would then push it back to him with his snout. He was here in the room first, and he would not leave because the Pine Tree didn't like him. Besides, Stan said that he had to watch and make sure that the other man did not try to leave, even if he was on his break.

With this, he knew that he had to stay there. Piggy, fed up with constantly retrieving the ball for him, trotted over and left the ball back to make his point clear. He pushed at Winston's hand, demanding affection. The man scratched his ears bit and then stopped. This only resulted in Piggy nudging him again, and flipping on to his back. The pig remained like that, with all four of his legs in the air until Winston started to rub his belly. The man briefly wondered if Maple's pig was really a chubby dog that didn't have any hair.

But the pig was just too cute to resist. Much like his owner, Maple... Winston found her annoying some the time. Maple was rather loud and excitable, and she often tried to get him involved in her little girl schemes. Winston allowed her to make tiny braids with his hair, but getting his nails done was where he put his foot down. But the brunette did seem to have good intentions for the most part. And of course she would always be an improvement from _him. _

Like Piggy, not matter how much she could bother him at times, Winston still liked her very much. She was so nice to him. Not only that, more than once Winston found himself fixated by her cheerful smile. It made him wonder how one could smile so much, grinning a everything that headed her way like that. It also made him wonder how long it would take for Bill to permanently erase that smile.

There was almost something familiar about her. Winston had no idea why that could possibly be though. He didn't remember anything before... What had happened to him. His body had never aged though, that much he could tell. Even though his hair was still that shocking white, Maple told him it was becoming blond near the top. So that must have been a sign of him growing again. Were there more signs?

Curious now, Winston looked down at his bitten and chewed nails. They were growing, even if he bit them out of habit. But in the few times when he looked in the mirror, something often refrained from doing, Winston knew that he didn't have wrinkles and age lines. Farther inspecting his hands out of, Winston noted that they were a bit spindly and veined, but he didn't have any major veins sticking out of his skin like a pop-up book.

The man stopped petting Piggy, getting to his feet. He was starting to wonder more about himself now that he felt stronger. He knew that Maple had an assortment of make up and other girl things, and so it did not make long for him to find a hand mirror. Winston sat down on Maple's bed, and took in a deep breath. He readied himself to see the reflection he was going to be met with. The man held it up to his face, and winced at what he saw.

His scratched out eye made him look like complete nightmare. The disfigurement was horrific. It didn't hurt any more, but the reminder of when Bill took his eye made Winston feel sick to his stomach. He knew that the demon still had it as a trophy as well, just to hold it over him. As if the reminder slashed across his face was not enough. His hair was just long enough to cover the top half of the X. He could see the bow tie cuts poking up from his collar. They were much neater than the scary mess that was his eye, but it still looked very unnatural.

For the first time in a long time, Winston actually felt angry at the demon for what he had done. He slowly set down the mirror, only to realize something. The Pine Tree (Who was still duck taped in bed, and fighting off sleep the best he could.) Was across from him. His face was at just the right angle, and the man noticed a glaring similarity between the two of them. Their faces were both closer in structure, even if Winston was more thin. They had the same shaped mouths as well. Their eyebrows were close too. And then there was his black eye... Something about that bothered Winston, but he was not sure what could possibly be.

"What?" The Pine Tree snapped at him.

Winston wasn't going to waste his words on the young man, and instead averted his gaze.

"Figures." He snorted. "You complain about being started at and now you're doing the same thing."

_"Well at least I didn't treat you like a test subject."_

"Hypocrite."

Winston did not feel like putting up with the Pine Tree. He had had enough of it over the past frame of time, if only to keep from being more hurt. _He _was so much stronger than him, there was no way he could have fought back against a dream-demon who had it out for him. The Pine Tree on the other hand? He couldn't really do much worse than Bill could've! Winston had no idea why he hated him so much. Was it because he only ever talked to Maple? Was it because he now managed the finances of the Mystery Shack?! Winston had no clue on what it was, but he would not put up with any of it if the Pine Tree was going to keep acting like this around him! The man got to his feet, intending to go find Maple. Just as he was about to slam the door behind him, the other man said;

"Go ahead, do that. Just run off to your precious _Maple. _Her name's Mabel. If you're going to spend so much time with my sister, the least you could do is call her by the right name."

That just took the cake. Winston turned to face the man with snarl, taking a deep breath as he figured out the words to scream at the other man. The young man visibly flinched from his spot under those blankets and duct tape. Winston realized that he was afraid. Of him? But why? Then it hit him. He was afraid of what _he _had done, the repercussions that would be faced once Bill came back. He saw how they looked similar, and was scared that the same thing was going to happen to him.

Winston felt a pang of empathy at this. He was just so scared, and didn't want the same thing to happen to him. This was why he had always been hostile. He was just afraid of loosing everything he had ever known. This was why he wasn't sleeping as well. Nightmares, Bill was giving him nightmares ever since... This sympathy was overwhelmed by his anger at the time. He deserved it for all Winston cared!

All these revelations has only occurred in a few split seconds, he had yet to react his words. Instead of yelling at him like he had planned to, Winston strode forwards until he was leaning over him. He let a tiny grin spread across his normally neutral or frowning face, seeing up close how tired he really was. Just to make a point, Winston did the best impression he possibly could of his tormentor.

"Sweet dreams Pine Tree."

Fear openly showed on his face, and Winston couldn't be more happy with the reaction. He left the Pine Tree to his own devices, making sure to close the door. The lost soul practically skipped downstairs to find Maple.


	6. Chapter 6

**Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where'd the "Winston is Evil?" Band wagon suddenly come from? One chapter everyone's like;**

**"Oh! Poor sweet, Winston!"**

**And now you guys are like;**

**"Winston is Bill and Satan combined!"**

**What did he do?! What am I missing here?! Am I acting clueless because Winston really is evil?! Why are there so many questions?! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p>Winston was happy to soon find Mabel downstairs. She had just gotten off on her break, while he was going back on his shift. There had to be one of them manning the Mystery Shack at all times while Stan was working with the tourists. Winston felt himself grow warm on the inside when Mabel saw him and smiled.<p>

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Mabel grinned.

Winston, not knowing any better way to explain it (And it wasn't like he planned on explaining that he had frightened her brother out of revenge.) Winston picked up Mabel and pulled her in to a rather tight hug.

Mabel was surprised. She had really been trying her best to help Winston work more on his people skills. But making physical contact with others was his biggest failing. He often flinched at the slightest brush of hands. But now he was here, hugging the absolute life out of her. She knew that a hug a day would keep the creepy dream-dorito trauma away! She returned the hug, glad to know that Winston liked her enough to hug her.

Sometimes, Mabel got the impression that he was annoyed with her, especially when she tried to involve him in any girl stuff. But that might have just been the reaction anyone would give if their masculinity was threatened by a tea party. Other times, Mabel found that Winston hated to be away from her. He seemed to feel the need to trail behind like a little lost kitten. An adorable little lost kitten. Winston was not really handsome per say, but he did have a rather striking appearance. Beneath his scars, he must have been a bit of a looker.

The brunette was released from his hold.

"Yay! We got you to hug!" She cheered.

"It took a long time."

"It's only been three weeks!" Mabel waved off.

"You hug too much." Winston goaded, knowing what she would do.

He smirked as Mabel hugged him again. That meant three hugs in total today, counting her usual daily hug.

"You just need more practice!" The brunette insisted.

_"I'd _**_love _**_more practice."_

Winston could not help but blush at the thought after it had come to mind. This was not the first time Mabel had succeeded in getting a rather male reaction out of him. There was something special about her. He really liked Mabel. Well, he liked everyone in the Mystery Shack, with the exception of the Pine Tree. He wanted an apology before he would ever look at the other man again.

"Winston?"

"Thinking."

"You think too much!" Mabel proclaimed. "That's why I rarely think out anything I do!"

"Mabel..." Winston voiced to himself. "Mabel, Mabel, Mabel..."

Winston was surprised by how much he _enjoyed _the sound of her name. There was just something so _sweet _about it. He could not find the word to describe the sound of her name. It just had very _catchy _ring to it. No, not catchy, something better than that. It was pleasing to his ears. Her name was so beautiful, and suited her unique attitude. He just wanted to repeat the sound over and over again...

"You said my name." Mabel said in astonishment, used to his moniker of Maple.

The man nodded in affirmation.

"Have you managed to properly say Dipper's yet? What about Waddles?"

At the mention of the Pine Tree, his tiny smile faded. He did not like the Pine Tree.

"Piiiiiineeeee Treeeeeee." He purposely stretched.

Mabel just rolled her eyes, thinking it would come to him eventually.

_"I give everyone nick names. Why should I bother addressing them with first names unless I know them?"_

That voice in his head wasn't his.

_"Surprise! It's me!"_

He shuddered. Bill was in his head again.

_"You might want to check up on 'Maple's' brother."_

Just then, a scream rang through the Mystery Shack. Mabel gave a gasp.

"Dipper!"

The young woman turned and scrambled in the directions of the attic, Winston reluctantly followed behind her.

* * *

><p>"Dipper!" A haunting voice echoed.<p>

No. He was back. He had fallen asleep again.

"Oh Dipper!" The voice repeated.

Taking in his surroundings, Dipper realized this wasn't like the dreams where he had control of things before. This was a real dream. He was under Mabel's bed, he could see his own from underneath where he lay. This must have been what it was like for Winston. He cowered farther back in his dark hiding place as he heard him call once more;

"Diiiiiiiiipeeeeer! Where are yoooou?"

Shivers ran down his back as the voice drew closer. He watched as the door to the room opened, and a pair of feet started to wander around the room. The Mystery Twin held his breath, remaining silent and still as possible from his spot.

"You know you can't hide for looooooong!" He taunted.

The young man silently pleaded that he wouldn't be found. The feet walked over to his bed an peered underneath, but did not look underneath the other one.

"Hmmm, well I know you're not hiding in the closet any more." He joked. "So that only leaves one place left..."

The feet took deliberately slow steps towards his hiding spot. Dipper squeezed his eyes shut, begging that he would not be found. Seconds seemed to tick by at an agonizing pace as he waited to be discovered. Then, he said;

"Well I guess he must be downstairs."

The door shut. Dipper heaved great sigh of relief, no longer holding his breath.

"Boo."

A pair of hands suddenly grabbed on to his arms. Dipper was dragged out of his spot from under the bed. He tried to turn around to escape back. But with a wrenching twist of his shoulders, Dipper was pinned back to the floor. He kicked at the man, but there was not much he could reach once his tormentor sat straddled on his waist.

"Dipper, Dipper, Dipper." Bill chuckled, tweaking his nose. "Didn't I tell you that I wanted you to get some proper sleep?"

"Fuck. Off." Dipper wheezed in reply.

"Well, since you won't listen to me, I can't say I didn't want you!" He sung.

His eyes grew large as he saw the man pull out a huge, sharp-looking butcher knife. The knife was lovingly cleaned and polished. The serrations on it glittered dangerously. He felt queasy at the sight of it. The demon let go of his shoulders so he could hold Dipper's left wrist in an unfailing grip. With the other hand, he held the knife. The Mystery Twin pushed and pulled as much as he could, yet the weight of the demon pressing down on him was still too much for him to move. His protests only seemed to make the situation worse, as his smile grew larger and larger.

"Stop it! What are you doing?!" Dipper pleaded.

"Don't worry, this will only hurt a little." The man reassured.

Three red slits spread across his wrist. A burning trail of fiery pain spread through the lines. His wrist was twisted around so that he could see the triangle now stretched across his inner arm. Blood started to drip from the spots in little beads of crimson.

"There, was that so bad?" Bill cooed.

"G-get. B-b-bent."

"We can do that later." He promised with a salacious look. "Right now we need to finish off your brand."

Dipper's wrist was freed from his grasp, but this still left him with no advantage. No matter how much kicked and struggled, the pressing weight of his tormentor grew. The demon twirled his fingers as if he were holding a baton. A poker materialized in his hands, and he paused it's twirling to show him the white-hot triangle design on the end. Dipper realized what the demon had in mind, and gave a horrified scream. He could feel the heat radiating off of the poker from where he lay, clutching his injured wrist. But he simply pried away his fingers, holding his arm once more.

"No! NO!" He screamed, watching as the poker descended upon him.

His pleads and screams grew tenfold. The moment it pressed against his skin he could feel the heat eating away at his flesh. The cuts from earlier seemed welcoming compared to having the poker pressed against his exposed flesh like this. The smell of burning meat, his own flesh began. It lasted so long that Dipper thought he was going to be sick to his stomach. The contents of his stomach seemed to twist and turn in to slimy knots, choking him. The pain dimmed as the poker was pulled away from him. Dipper sobbed, his head feeling unclear from all of the pain.

"There, there." He comforted. "See? It's all over now. You're fine, perfectly fine."

The young man kept crying, even as a cooling sensation spread through the burning spot. A gentle hand started to slowly caress his face, wiping away the tears. He flinched when a thumb came to rest on his bruised eye.

"See? I'll make it better for ya'..."

Dipper was snapped out of his pain-induced shock when he suddenly realized he was being kissed. He gave muffled; "Mmn!" Pulling away from his tormentor. His shoulders were pressed back down on the ground. Each nipping kiss became more of a bite as he forced his tongue past his lips. Dipper bit down on him, hoping to make him stop, but did anything but at the sharp sting of pain. All he got was a delighted moan in response, his sadistic love for pain making him more aroused. He eventually pulled away from him, giving Dipper his space.

"I've been waiting a long time to do that." He purred.

"W-why?" The Mystery Twin whimpered, shrinking away.

"When I said I liked ya', I meant in more ways than one." He grinned. "The only problem is Winnie's body is a limited time offer, and there's not much you can really do when you're a triangle."

He shuddered in response, mental images flashing through his mind. The demon got to his feet, and then helped Dipper up to his feet for some unfathomable reason. He took his wrist, inspecting the brand that now encircled his it. The Mystery twin yelped at the pain that spread through the burn. His skin around the spot was black and inflamed, like it was boiling underneath. Cloudy black trails of what looked like ink seemed to be leaching in to the rest of his forearm.

"That's going to be sore for a while." Bill supplied. "Luckily for you, you and I will be the only ones who can see it."

"W-why?" Dipper begged, grabbing on to the branded mark on his skin.

"You have to sleep when I say that you need sleep. I think you'll find yourself more... Compelled to do what I say next time. Understand?"

"I get it." He defeatedly sighed.

"Good. And oh, would you look at the time? Your sister and Winnie are trying to wake you up already! Time flies when you're having fun."

Dipper could not even dignify response to that.

* * *

><p>"Dipper! DIPPER!"<p>

Mabel shook her struggling and screaming brother awake. His eyes flew open, and Dipper gave a sudden sigh of relief once he realized he was awake again. He relaxed and stopped struggling once he was able to discern what was going around him. Winston felt guilt sweep through him when he saw what the young man was going through. He helped Mabel tear off the layers of duct tape and blankets that were holding down the Pine Tree. Mabel pulled her brother in to a tight hug, which he returned without hesitation.

Winston decided to let the twins have a little time to themselves. He did not want to just awkwardly stand there in what was probably a more private moment for them. He went out in to the hall, trying to feel less guilty, and justify leaving the man to Bill and his nightmares.

_"Oh please! Don't even bother trying to deny it! He got what was coming to him."_

Bill was still in his head.

_"Of course I'm still here! What didja' except me to just forget you existed and move on to tormenting him?"_

No. This was not good. He could not still have the demon inside of his head. This was bad. He already had those tormenting him, and all of those memories. Terrible memories... He wasn't going to go back to that! He'd never do it again! He wouldn't let him get his body and make him do things again! No! It was just so painful!

But seeing what the Pine Tree had gone through made him regret the thought. He was more than familiar with the terrified expression on his face as he woke up, not to mention, Winston could have sworn he saw the tell-tale sign of a familiar brand on his wrist. Winston looked at his own with a frown, wondering if he really bad been marked. He supposed that he could see the Pine Tree's because of the Bill in him. Like property. Winston hated the ugly mark.

He had the briefest threads of memories from when he had gotten his own. Just barely though. It was so long ago... Being pinned underneath his weight while a rough sketch was traced out with the knife... Winston could still see the triumphant smile on Damon's face, the demon's possession contorting his once soft facial features that looked so much like his now did... That same horror the Pine Tree wore when he was abandoned for good...

It clicked. Winston realized everything with horror of his own. He was going to die. Once all those loose ends were tied up, he was going to be put down like his own personal tormentor. Damon, who the demon had used to take away everything from him. Now Bill was going to use him to hurt the Pine Tree and his family. Everything was repeating again. Winston didn't remember a lot from the beginning, but he knew that it must have been repeating again. There was no way all three of them had looked like each other on purpose, why they (At least every other one.) had names starting with the same letter. If those held true, other things did as well.

They all had those similarities between them because those were the things that _he _was attracted to. Long, wild, hair, softer features, big eyes... He made sure to do something to their left eye and add those scars so they looked at that more similar. He was after the things that he wanted in a person, and Dipper, like eleven others, fit his desires perfectly. The lost soul felt sick to his stomach. The Pine Tree had every right to be afraid when a demon had pegged him as his newest target. The man whimpered as he realized what this meant. He felt even more guilty, and helpless. Just so helpless fighting against it. He couldn't fight this! There was no way that he could ever fight back! It just caused so much pain! He couldn't take any more pain! None!

Mabel now came out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her. It was only then that Winston realized he had shrunk against the wall and tried to curl up in a ball. He got to his feet and tried give Mabel a smile, but simply couldn't manage.

"Are you ok?" The brunette asked.

Winston opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out. He tried to speak again, but could find no words to explain what he had realized. Finally, he sadly shook his head, gesturing that he wanted to be alone. Winston needed some more time to think. He did not know what to do. He was aware of what the demon had planned, yet there was no way he could stop it from happening. What was he supposed to do?

_"Nothing. You're just a weak, pathetic, human."_

_"You could never stand up to him for long."_

_"What makes you think this time will be any different?"_

_"That's what we all thought too. That it would be different next time."_

_"Nothing changes."_

_"He always gets what he wants."_

_"He wants a new puppet."_

_"He wants you dead."_

_"You'll be with us soon enough Winnie."_

_"The fun's only just began."_

"I'll be there if you need me." The brunette cut in, giving his shoulder squeeze.

Mabel descended the stairs, preparing to take over Winston's shift while he figure out whatever it was needed. Once he heard her reach the bottom floor, the lost soul went back in to the attic bedroom. The young man was still laying in bed, slowly nodding off once more. When he heard him enter the room, his attention instantly snapped on to Winston. He did not say anything, however his eyes narrowed at the sight. Winston did his best to look more humbled and small, hoping would prevent any verbal attacks from him.

He slowly drew closer to him, trying to catch a glance of his wrists to see if he could spot the brand. The young man suspiciously watched his every move despite how tired he was. Curiosity overwhelmed the lost soul's caution, and he grabbed his arm.

"Hey man! What the heck?!" He snarled in response, yanking away his arm.

Winston grabbed his wrist again and pulled it next to his own. The man's cry of of anger stuck in his throat when he understood what Winston was doing. The both of them could see each other's brand. Winston sucked in a breath and took a frightened step away from him, suspicions now more confirmed than he could ever hope for them to be. But now what?

Should he warn him? Would it do any good? What would it amount to, trying to save the next one in line? Nothing was going to change. There was nothing any warnings could do. It was hopeless. Winston did the only thing he could think to do; Hide under the bed, and hope that he would be fine for now.

* * *

><p>Winston slept through the rest of the afternoon, and straight through the night. Dipper did the same, the both of them feeling rather drained. Unfortunately, this left Mabel working the both of their shifts until she could pass out in bed as well. The next morning, Winston awoke where he usually did. Somehow, he always ended up sleeping on Mabel's bed despite falling asleep underneath it.<p>

Only this time, he had a mouthful of hair, because he was not just sleeping at the foot of her bed, he was sleeping with Mabel. Winston cursed his male reactions once more, feeling her rather tightly pressed against him. One of his arms had fallen asleep from being crushed under her side, while the other curled around her stomach. The good outweighed the bad though. Thus despite his discomforts, Winston was perfectly happy to keep snuggling in bed with her. He hoped Mabel would not mind...

An unimpressed Dipper cleared his throat.

"Let go of my sister." He instructed in a steely tone.

The lost soul gave tiny groan, but did so anyways, sitting up in bed.

"Get dressed. I'd like a word downstairs." Dipper hissed in a venomous tone of voice.

Winston rolled his eye, but nodded at the command. He debated taking as long as humanly possible to get dressed, but decided against it. Winston slipped off his pyjama pants, switching for pants instead. It may have been summer, but he saw still uncomfortable keeping much of himself exposed. He pulled on a shirt and grabbed his work apron and mandatory eye patch. Winston also grabbed the note pad and pen he had been carrying around out of habit. It was easier than speaking. His throat started to hurt if he said too much. It always felt raw and sore. It hurt a lot. Winston didn't like the scratchy pain. He didn't like pain. But at least he could prevent this kind. Not like the others...

Within a few minutes, he was dressed and downstairs, looking for the young man. He had said downstairs, but not where specifically to meet. Leave it to him in his anger to neglect that little detail. The other man was impatiently waiting for him in the den, tapping his foot. Once the lost soul arrived, he gave an impatient sigh.

"Finally!"

Winston pulled out his pad of paper and wrote in reply;

_What do you want? _

"I want you to stay away from my sister." He commanded.

_"Really?" _A spiteful laugh asked inside of his head. _"You're not actually going to listen to him are you?"_

Winston bit his tongue, trying to shake off the twinge of annoyance.

_Why? _

"Because I don't want you to."

_"Oh, well that certainly justifies everything now doesn't it?"_

Winston's hand seemed to take a life of his own at the rather blasé remark. He did not like him, plain and simple. Because of that, he wanted him to give up his only friend. Well boy did he have another thing coming! The older man angrily scribbled across the page.

_If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous._

The Mystery Twin stared at him incredulously.

"That's disgusting man! She's my sister!"

_I wasn't referring to your sister._

Winston purposely smirked at the younger man, knowing that would set him off. It was so easy to bait him when he wore his emotions on his sleeves like that. But what he wasn't expecting was that the Pine Tree would snap at him the way he did.

"Yeah that's right, you laugh. You're probably helping him anyways."

This stopped his tiny smirk.

_"Whoa, touched a nerve there didn't he_?"

Seeing as he got no reply, the young man continued.

"You think I haven't realized? It doesn't take genius to realize that you're keeping something from us, and I intend to find out what that is. I already know that it has something to do with what Bill's been up to. And if you think I'm just going to take my punishment laying down, you're wrong. I don't want you or that puffed up piñata even _looking _at Mabel. She doesn't deserve anything you want to do to her."

That was _it! _

Winston didn't even realize it, but suddenly the Pine Tree was holding the side of his face in shock. When he pulled away his hand, several drops of blood stained his fingers. Murder flashed in his eyes. In a split second, the two were snarling and fighting each other like wild dogs. Fingers pulled at his throat, trying to strangle him. Winston was aware of tugging at the other's hair. A first connected with his eye, most likely bruising it farther. The Mystery Twin yelped at this before he felt teeth sink in to his shoulder, and his wrist bent at a funny angle. Winston responded by kneeing him in the stomach, winding his foe. But then a slap to the face stunned him, as he was kicked where the sun didn't shine.

Of course, the sounds of them fighting in the hall did not go unnoticed. Stan came to investigate as he heard the scuffle, and Dipper's shrieks of; "I'm gonna' kill you!" The con man tried to pull them apart before any lasting damage could be done, but to no avail.

"SOOS!"

The man-child came in huffing and puffing. He grabbed on to Dipper, while Stan grabbed Winston. On the count of three, they wrenched the two men apart. They still remained screaming and struggling as they tried to go back to tearing each other to pieces.

"Come on! Break it up you two!" The elderly man commanded.

"Dipper dude!" Soos attempted to intervene. "Take it easy!"

"NO!" The Mystery Twin cried, still angrily squirming. "Let me at him! I'll kill him!"

If Winston could speak, he would probably be saying the same things. Stan winced as the blond still fought against him, but still kept the kid in a bear-hug lest he find a way to escape. A minute of this passed, until the tempers of the both of them had reasonably calmed down. Stan indicated for Soos to let go of Dipper first, because Stan wouldn't hesitate to literally knock some sense into his great-nephew if necessary.

Luckily, Dipper seemed to have calmed down enough to just stand there. He was panting, all the while glaring at Winston. The latter had stopped trying to fight against him now, going limp in his arms like a rag doll. The elderly man let go of him. Winston made no move to attack Dipper again, but glared with just as much hatred at the kid.

"Soos, go take Dipper and get him a raw steak for that eye of his. It's gonna' start swelling up again otherwise."

Soos nodded in affirmation, leading his silent Dipper to the kitchen. He then turned to Winston.

"You. My office. Now."

Winston looked rather reluctant to follow him, but Stan didn't really care. He lead the lost soul to office and shut the door.

"Sit." Stan gruffly instructed, before turning to his desk.

The man yanked open a few drawers and rummaged through them until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out the first aid kit and searched for everything that he needed. He quickly retrieved a basin with water and a box of tissue. He mopped up the blood the best he could and handed him a wad off tissue to staunch his bloody nose. Then he set to cleaning and bandaging the spots on his hands where he had split the skin from scratches.

Winston flinched with each little action. It looked as if the man was heading back to being more paranoid about things. Stan felt no guilt in blaming his idiot great-nephew for this one. Once he was done, the elderly man sat down at his desk and focused on Winston. The white-blond remained fixated on the ground, still holding the reddening tissues.

"Keep your head tilted slightly up, you don't want to keep bleeding forever do ya'?"

He moved to keep his head up, but not tilted so that way he ended up swallowing the blood. The man still avoided eye contact.

"Well, what happened?"

Stan swatted away Winston's hands when he tried to reach for the pen and fraudulent bills that had yet to be shredded.

"Use your words."

Winston tried to remind him that his throat hurt when he spoke too much, but he was interrupted.

"Your throat is going to keep hurting until you get more practice talking."

Stan was too stubborn in his ways, and the other man knew this full well. It took bit of work to build up the nerve for what he wanted to say, and remembering how to speak.

"I like Mabel."

Winston squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for Stan to start yelling at him.

"That's it?" The man laughed. "Jeeze Trembly!"

"T-Trembly?"

Stan's eyes grew huge when he realized his slip up.

"Uh, it's nothing!" He waved off.

"Really?" Winston asked, unconvinced.

"Look." The elderly man huffed. "You remind me of this jerk named Winston who used to have the biggest crush on my ex is all. He went missing forever ago, and the rest of the memories after that are still really hazy from all that-... Well they're hazy!"

He had a fair idea on why those memories were hazy, but decided not to bring it up.

"Winston Trembly..." He reflected. "I like it."

"Well I don't." Stan grumbled. "He was always staring at Carla when he thought I wasn't looking. And then of course there was that damned hippie who came in and ruined everything! I hope he chocked on those stupid grass necklaces of his! Always with his long pants and stupid peace signs and songs about-"

He man paused mid-rant, remembering that Winston was still listening to him.

"So you like my great-niece eh?" The con man asked, leaning over the desk to glare at him.

Winston's eyes grew wide and frightful at this. He quickly nodded.

"I better not catch you doing anything creepy." Stan warned. "Or you'll be sleeping on the roof before you can say McCorkle."

"You don't mind me liking her?"

"Should I have a reason not to?"

Winston decided that it was best to be honest with Stan.

"I'm going to be trouble for you sooner or later." He replied.

The con man barked out a laugh at this.

"Kid, this family's middle name is trouble. I'd be surprised if some random stranger that those two gremlins actually stole from a demon in wasn't going to be trouble."

"You're really fine with it?"

"Of course!" Stan grinned. "So long as you don't look at, write letters to, talk to, or think about my great-niece, I'm fine with that!"

Winston gulped, but gave nod. This was going to be bit difficult to circumvent.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p>Why did Mabel have to wear such short skirts?<p>

_"You can't deny that you don't like the view."_

Winston groaned as he heard the voice in his head. The others had gone away, but that didn't mean a certain someone's persistence wasn't. And of course, it was right. He liked the view. He really, really enjoyed the sight he was met with. But that didn't mean he wanted to keep staring at her like that.

He couldn't help it though! She was just there in the gift shop! Restocking inventory with her back to him! No matter where he looked or what he tried to distract himself with, his eyes kept wandering back to Mabel.

_"I wonder what would happen if you got her to bend over?"_

_"S-stop!"_

_"Do you think she wears panties, or a thong?"_

_"Shut up!"_

_"I wonder what colour they are?"_

_"Maybe they match her bra..."_

_"Stop!"_

_"Maybe you should get up and find out. She certainly wouldn't mind."_

_"GET OUT!"_

"Whoops!"

Suddenly, Mabel knocked over the bock of knick knacks that she had been filling the shelves with. She bent over to pock them up. Winston's eye grew wide for a second, then he squeaked and covered them. The voice inside his head actually whimpered at this, and started to plead. Telling him to uncover his eyes. Once Winston was certain that she was done, he uncovered his eyes. Only, she wasn't done yet.

_"Ahhh... They're yellow. Such a nice colour to. Although I have so say she'd look even better without them on."_

_"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"_

_"OUR head."_

_"My head! Leave!" _

_"Whoa, maybe there still is some fight left in ya'. This'll be fun..."_

Winston didn't know what that meant, but it couldn't have been good. Luckily for him, Stan came in to the gift shop to inspect his workers. This was enough motivation to make Winston look away from Mabel. Stan didn't make empty threats, and he'd much rather live to see an other day. Still, he sneaked a quick glance at Mabel when he hoped Stan wasn't looking. She had just finished up with the inventory, and was now finished her shift for the work day.

Only, the problem with this was that Stan did happen to be observing Winston at that moment. The elderly man cleared his throat, catching the employee's attention. He turned around to face Stan, while trying to look as innocent as humanly possible.

"Yeesh kid, could you be any more obvious? Either ask her out, or don't at all!" Then, he leaned closer to the blond to whisper. "Either way you're dead meat."

Winston gulped and nervously nodded in confirmation. Stan stared him down for a few more moments, and then turned on his heel with a huff.

"I'm heading in to town now. Dipper's coming with me. We'll be back in about two hours."

The man strode out of the room, muttering something about male hormones and brunettes. One might wonder why Mabel didn't hear any of this. That was because she had her earbuds in, and was silently singing along with Several Timez as she did her work. But once she saw that Stan had said something to Winston, she pulled them out and asked the man;

"What did he say?"

Reddening a little, Winston had no idea how to reply to Mabel's fairly innocent question. He didn't want to scare her away! He liked Mabel! He really, really liked her! But she was just so... Different, and innocent. She shouldn't want a messed-up trouble-maker like him. He was bad. He was going to hurt her if he wasn't careful. He didn't want Mabel hurt! It was bad! The pain was bad and he didn't want Mabel to feel it!

It was wrong of him to like her like this and he knew it. His feeling for Mabel were hardly the innocent kind, like no doubt hers certainly were. After all, how could she possibly want some scarfaced sub-human? He wanted so badly to just be normal, a normal person who wasn't trouble and a mess that would cost them a dear price. He wanted to leave, but he knew that without the Pines protection he had nothing.

There was nothing left for him, and soon he was going to be dead, because Bill always got what he wanted. Bill wanted him dead, and the demon was positively itching to catch up with him. He didn't want to go back! But he knew that he would have to eventually. He had to listen to his master or else he would pay that dear price. But he was always paying the price. He was always seeing things through the demon's eye. He had to watch it all. He enjoyed watching it! He had liked what he had seen but once he was free everything felt so horrible and he was disgusted with himself. He didn't want to like seeing all of those terrible things! He didn't want the voices of ten other victims trapped inside of his head!

He _wanted _Mabel. But he knew that he couldn't. She was so good, so sweet and innocent. He didn't want to see her tangled in that mess. He didn't want to think he loved her because it was going to make things harder. He had this growing fatal attraction for her, but Winston to himself not to act on them. Even though _he _was more than willing to oblige. He held some sort of interest in Mabel too. That was wrong! It was bad! He couldn't be thinking about Mabel like this!

Yet at the same time, she was just so... So...

"Winston?" The brunette asked.

Winston growled, a feral snarl parting his lips. Before he realized what he was doing, he was holding on to Mabel's shoulders and his lips were being forced on hers. He was kissing Mabel. He was _kissing _Mabel! And it felt _great _! He did not care if she was even kissing back or fighting against him because all he knew was that he was kissing Mabel, and he was not going to stop until he couldn't breathe any more.

He did not know _what _he had been thinking just waiting and trying to ignore Mabel as if that was possible when he slept in the same _bed _as her. If he had his way, and he certainly planned on getting his way, they'd just continue like that. He would be getting his way of course. Mabel was _his _and no one else's. He wouldn't let anyone touch her and if they did he would tear out their throats with his bare hands. No one would come near _his _Mabel. No one! He didn't care what he had to do to ensure it.

She was his, and that meant he was going to have his way with her. Whether it was him pulling her or Mabel willingly following he pushed her in to the broom closet for more privacy. The first thing he did was pull off that adorable yet frustrating skirt of hers. Oh yes, he was certainly going to have his fun with her...

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Winston woke up when Dipper's alarm went of. He gave a horrified yip and scrambled out of bed. He felt like crying in relief as he realized that none of it was real. He hadn't done any of that to Mabel. He didn't want either of the twins to see him like this, especially her brother. Winston grabbed the nearest pair of pants he could find, along with a shirt. He got to the bathroom and quickly jumped in. Only once the water was running did he start to cry.

What was wrong with him?

* * *

><p>Later that same day, Mabel was in her and Dipper's bedroom. Winston was on the shift, which left Dipper and Mabel some space for good-quality sibling time. But unfortunately, they were not able to so. Mabel just wanted to do normal twin stuff, but Dipper was in Mystery Nerd mode as she called it. The brunette was sitting on her bed while Dipper raced around the room. Her brother quickly closed the blinds, inspected under the beds, and most miraculously, put away his dirty clothes there was at least some room on the floor.<p>

"What's up Bro-Bro?" Mabel finally asked.

"Shhh!" Dipper whispered, pressing a finger to his lips.

"Why?" She said, lowering her voice to a whisper.

"He might hear us."

Instantly, the young woman's cheerful mood was demolished. Why couldn't her brother just trust Winston and get along with him already?! Mabel crossed her arms and huffed at her brother, fixing him with a stern look.

"Why can't you and Winston just get along?"

Dipper surprised her by replying;

"This isn't about Winston! It's about _him. _"

"You mean Bill?" She wondered.

For a brief moment, a frightened look dashed across his eyes. Mabel just waved it off as his usual paranoid self. Dipper froze at the mention of the demon's name before harshly commanding to her;

"Don't say his name!"

"Why not?"

Dipper's eyes darted from left to right nervously, as if he did not know how he was supposed to respond. Mabel rolled her eyes, not knowing what her brother was really going through. If Dipper could have spoken to his sister about what Bill had done, he would have. They were each other's greatest confidants, but when he tried to speak, nothing came out of his mouth. He tried again, but he fell mute, like something was blocking the words from being spoken.

_"Hah! You didn't seriously think I'd take your word on keeping quiet right? No matter how hard to try to say, illustrate, or write, it won't work. Unless you're with Winnie or I of course. Speaking of which, I'm off to visit him for a bit."_

The darker presence seemed to vanish from his mind. Dipper was greatful that the demon would not hear what he was going to say next. Still, he had to reply to Mabel before she walked out on him for remaining silent. Thus, he could only settle for a simple;

"Just don't."

"Sure." The brunette sighed. "So why all the paranoid scaredy stuff?"

Taking a deep inhale, Dipper went over what he had discovered

"Mabel, for the past few weeks, I've been noticing things..."

"The past few weeks since Winston's been here you mean." Mabel corrected.

The look on his face confirmed it.

"Look Dipper." Mabel began, getting to her feet. "If you're just going to go on about how Winston is not be trusted because-"

"It's not about him! I promise!" Dipper quickly said.

Mabel took her seat on the bed across from her fellow Mystery Twin, expectantly awaiting what he had to share. Dipper looked around again. Then he pulled out a journal from underneath his mattress. He got to his feet and then sat next to Mabel so she could see the book. It was filled with pictures, almost like one of her scrap books. Only everything was nowhere near a fabulous. Throughout it were haphazardly taped pictures of... Triangles?

"That's weird and all Dipper, but what does any of this have to do with B- Him?"

"They're all over town Mabel!" The Mystery Twin explained, pointing to a picture. "They're even in the Mystery Shack!"

"Dipper." She sighed. "You could find this stuff in any town. What, is Soos' bag of corn chips secretly watching us?"

"Mabel! You've got to take this seriously! Look at this! Just stare at these pictures and tell me that exact patterns of him could be found everywhere!"

The young man furiously flipped through the pages, pointing to things like the backs on a deck of cards, their negative twelve dollar bill, and even a character in the arcade. Mabel's demeanour instantly changed as she saw where her brother was going with all of this.

"That's not all." The Mystery Twin continued. "I tried to get rid of some of them, but no matter what I did they stayed there!"

Dipper decided to leave out that he tried to rip apart the deck or cards when he first realized that a familiar figure was on the back of them. He had first started to notice these things when the eye had winked at him, just before Bill appeared and went on with his go fish jokes.

"What do you think it means Dipping-Sauce?"

"This was what he meant when he said that he was watching us."

"Do you think-"

"I _know _Mabel. It never occurred to me that his page in the journal was a complete fake. I knew that the author must have been going crazy when he said that he was nice and to be trusted. Or worse, maybe he really did trust him and then..."

"So you checked with the invisible ink?" Mabel broached.

"No, I had done that before." Dipper said. "All he wrote was the phrase 'can't sleep' over and over again..."

Dipper faded off as he drew darker conclusions on why the author would write such a message on the page about a dream-demon. Mabel took it upon herself to remind her brother they had more pressing matters.

"How did you find it then?"

"Well, I remember reading this book on ancient manuscripts. Paper was a rare commodity and super expensive before it was mass produced. So a lot of people actually used this scraping technique to take off the ink of the previous manuscript so they could write again. If you look at it with a computer, the scanner can pick up the traces of any ink and draw an image for you. No one's done that for at least a millennium, and it really only works with vellum, but I thought it was cool and-"

"BOP! Nerd alert!" Mabel interrupted. "So you tried to do it and found all of that other stuff right?"

"Yeah! There were all sorts of entries underneath. Rituals on dealing with creatures from other planes and their weaknesses. Including..."

"Bill." Mabel finished.

Dipper flinched at the name.

"If we were to have any tools made out of a gold and copper alloy, we could use them to destroy all the windows!"

"Windows?"

"The let him see in, so I called them windows." He shrugged.

"That's great and all Dipping-Sauce, but where are we going to get gold tools of any sorts?"

Dipper looked somewhat guilty at the thought, but it was for the greater good after all.

"Stan has a lot of gold stuff you know... Like those knuckles, his gold dentures could be used as scissors and-"

"Stop right there brother! You want to _steal _from our Grunkle Stan? He'll be sooo mad! I can't be grounded this summer! He wouldn't 't let me go to any parties!"

"We'd return it after." Dipper said in a small voice.

Mabel chewed on her lip, trying to come up with a good idea on what they should do. They couldn't just steal! But at the same time, they had to get rid of all those little things before something bad happened because of them...

"I'm in." Mabel replied. "But on one condition."

Dipper winced, knowing the makeover would not be a pretty one.

"What is it?"

"You have to at least come to an understanding with Winston."

Well, now he'd gladly take the makeover any day.

* * *

><p>He was sweeping the floor of the gift shop, meticulously starting down at each an every splintered floorboard as he pushed around the dust. He was doing his best not to hear the echoing screams, not see the things that he shouldn't have seen. But they wouldn't go away. He could not make all the bad things he had seen leave him alone. They were so painful to watch, he was so tired of them. Afraid. The pain was scary, the screams were bad. They hurt. He didn't like being hurt. He'd do absolutely anything to get away from them. But then he saw the visions of Mabel, imagined doing those same horrible things to her. But a part of him actually <em>liked <em>it!

The blond jumped as Mabel's twin came in to the room. He did his best to make himself look small and hidden. The looks he had started to send his was now frightened him. Winston couldn't help but feel jumpy after their fight, and his nightmare of Mabel. He knew that he wanted him to get out of their lives forever. If not for his sister, he might have already been locked up in the back of his mind already. The idea evoked a tiny whimper from him. He didn't want to go back there! Not again! He quickly moved his sweeping behind on of the displays in the gift shop, hoping that by making himself scarce, he would be left alone.

So he resumed his cleaning there, with only a tiny swishing sound to indicate that he was in the room at all. But with the other man in the room, he could not concentrate on trying to keep out all the screams, the horrible, endless, screams that echoed through his mind without even an end. He couldn't stop them. He was helpless as they grew louder. The blond felt his hands start to shake as he tried to keep tabs on the Pine Tree, and preventing the screams from getting to him.

Winston jumped as a hand was suddenly placed on his shoulder, but tried to resume sweeping anyways. The young man stood there next to him, staring at him. He did not know why he was there, but he did his best not to look up because if he looked up he would probably be mad at him and remind his sister of why it was just better to give him back to him and get it over with. Insist that there was no saving for him an that he would just end up causing trouble for them in the end. The young man did his best to do everything that he was told to, followed the chores that the angry man gave him. He didn't want to be yelled at. It scared him. Loud things were intimidating. Bad.

The blond jumped again as the other man cleared his throat, ready to say something.

"I know what it feels like." The Pine Tree began. " To have him haunt you like that."

He continued to sweep, ignoring the soft-spoken words.

"I know what it was like to have him in your body, making you do stuff."

He didn't reply to this, and stayed there sweeping the floor with great care.

"He took over my body once."

No response.

"Made me do terrible things, nearly killed me, tricked people."

Silence.

"I had to watch him while he did it. There was nothing I could do."

Nothing.

"He stuck forks in to my arm."

Nothing.

"He fell down the stairs "

Nothing.

"He would have killed Mabel."

Nothing.

"He told me that I didn't exist."

The blond stopped his sweeping at this. This was not the first time the man had been targeted as a new puppet. No wonder why he seemed more scared then he could possibly imagine. He had gone through it before. And if that was bad, whatever the next years would have in store for him would be even worse. The memories came back, as he remembered being told the very same thing as he tried to escape. Weak, helpless, hopeless, no chance. Why did it matter if he wasn't existing any more? It didn't.

"He laughed at me. Nearly destroyed my life. If Mabel wasn't there, I might have..."

The Pine Tree trailed off here. He stopped his sweeping and looked up at the young man.

"Been like me." He finished in a raspy whisper.

So he had finally managed to admit the truth to him out loud. Winston had already known why he was hated of course. But he had a feeling that this was as close to an apology as he was going to get with him. Some sort of mutual understanding. That they were scared, the both of them worried about what was going to happen to them. At least he had worked up the nerve to say what had been bothering him.

For a brief moment, they held the stare. His eye and mind seemed to hold a bitter clarity, looking almost human once more. The Pine Tree stared at him in awe, shocked that the blond had spoken, and to him of all people.

"I was afraid I'd be like you..." The Pine Tree echoed, staring at his scratched out eye and mangled scar tissue that was his throat

_"Bill likes you too much to do that. Yet." _He thought to himself. To Mabel's twin, he voiced; "I'd rather be a puppet than a prisoner."

The other man took a step back at this, his eyes widening slightly.

"A-are you saying t-that I'm a p-puppet?"

"You can always cut the strings and hang yourself with them."

"W-what do you m-mean?"

Winston gave no reply, and turned back to his sweeping of the floor; pushing around the dust and crumbs as he ignored the Pine Tree. It was better that way. He had said his piece, tried to make things at least a little better between them. They could relate in the manipulations of Bill. But just barely. He waited for him to become impatient at the cryptic remarks.

Sure enough, he did. And left the room with a defeated sigh. The blond winced at how loudly the door was shut. He instinctively covered his ears with a whimper. The broom fell to the floor with a clatter. He paused before picking it up. But this time, he did not resume sweeping. Carefully, he put it away, and took off his apron. He gently folded it, and set it down under the shelf behind the register. After that, he left to find Dipper. The voices were finally gone.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls **

* * *

><p>"Kid, I swear that if you keep staring at my great-niece like that I'm gonna' lock you two in a closet together until you work out your feelings."<p>

Winston flinched and blushed with embarrassment at being pointed out by Stan again. Mabel blushed too, realizing that her hunches may have been right. Not that she really planned on acting on them at all. Winston didn't really like any of her forward actions. He always responded by nervously running off somewhere else. She just figured that he would rather take most things slowly. After all, the poor guy had been through a lot of crazy stuff. Besides, having him end up as failed crush number seventy-eight was not a very appealing idea.

Mabel's musings on Winston were cut short when Dipper came in to the gift shop. He was pretending to restock inventory near the back. There were a few mirrors and reflective areas around these racks, but the spots were still crammed full with all sorts of goods. Mabel remembered the plan, and purposely ignored her brother. It was Soos' job to watch for when Dipper gave the signal.

This happened just as Stan went outside to look for any on-coming tourists. In that short amount of time, the mint candies Soos had been munching on turned in to a deadly weapon. Winston handed him a litre bottle of Pitt Cola from the freezer. It was only partially frozen, with the water and flavoured syrup separating. There was a thin layer of ice separating the liquid from the top of the bottle. Soos opened it, and quickly poured the entire package of Nentos mints in to the Pitt Cola.

Mabel watched as Soos clumsily tossed it back to Winston, who was fortunate enough to catch it. He then stashed it back in the freezer, and unplugged it. The lights in the Shack flickered a moment before burning brighter. Mabel gave a sigh of relief. Dipper had wired the freezer to a single circuit so that it would not knock out the power like during their practice run. Winston left the freezer door open so that all the cold would escape.

Then, Stan returned. He hastily slammed the door shut before Stan could see. Now came the hard part. They waited. The suspense was practically killing Mabel, as they waited for the drink to finally melt. According to Dipper, that would take a whole seven minutes, fifty-nine seconds, and three milliseconds. Which was of course seven minutes, fifty-nine seconds, and three milliseconds too long for her. But things would start to react just as the next group of tourists came in at seven o'clock precisely.

Things were tense, as Stan seemed to prowl around the gift shop, inspecting everything in his wake. Naturally, being a tough boss meant that he was prone to doing things like this. Winston seemed more jumpy than usual when Stan came over to watch as he swept. Mabel pleaded that the elderly man would leave him alone. Only to have her Grunkle now face her.

"Why are you all so quiet?" Stan growled.

"Oh! No reason!" Mabel nervously laughed. "We're all just a little tired after a day's hard, honest work is all!"

"The Shack hasn't opened yet."

"She's just saying that because she didn't get any sleep last night." Dipper filled in.

"What?!" Mabel asked. "I got tons of sleep!"

"Then why were you talking in your sleep?"

The brunette's face heated up a little bit as she recalled her dreams from the night before.

"What was I saying?"

"You kept calling Winston's name."

Dipper didn't seem to know why judging by how easily he said so. Stan looked at his great-niece and raised an eyebrow, which made her turn a deeper shade of crimson. Surprisingly, Soos got this as well. He nudged Winston and not-so quietly whispered to him;

"Dude! She's so in to you!"

Stan shook his head, and then muttered;

"Darn hormonal whippersnappers."

Everyone let out the breath they did not know they were holding, when Stan stomped out of the room as he went to go greet the tourists that would soon be coming. In this time, only two whole minutes had passed.

Dipper worked his way around the gift shop as he quickly restocked boxes and boxes of new inventory. He was trying to get as close to the exit as possible. Mabel would have to flat-out run after her brother. Meanwhile Winston and Soos (Codenamed Team Beta by Dipper.) would make sure to keep Stan and all the tourists busy.

Soos could cause more of a distraction with his clumsiness, while Winston would attempt to help Stan but actually make the situation worse by frustrating him. Both were perfect for the roles. Soos could exploit his stigma of making things worse, while Winston was known to get on Stan's nerves due to communication problems.

Then, the grandfather clock in the hall began to chime as the clock struck seven.

_Ding!_

_"One."_

_Ding!_

_"Two."_

_Ding!_

_"Three."_

_Ding!_

_"Four."_

_Ding!_

_"Five."_

_Ding!_

_"S-s-six."_

_Ding!_

**_Bang!_**

Just as the tourists and Stand walked inside of the Mystery Shack, the make-shift bomb went off, spraying everywhere. It just so happened that Winston and Soos had "conveniently" opened the freezer at that moment. Everyone screamed as they wondered what was going on, there was a sudden flurry of activity as Team Beta tried to help.

"Don't worry!" Came Stan's nervous voice. "This is all just a part of the tour!"

Mabel barely caught a glimpse of the hilarious scene, as she turned and ran down the hall to Stan's bedroom. Dipper had already gotten in and was picking at the lock on a trunk he knew was filled with valuables. Mabel in the meantime kept watch just inside the threshold with a mirror, which allowed her to see around any corners.

"Come on! Come on!" The brunette urged.

"I'm trying!" Dipper hysterically whispered.

The young woman felt her heart freeze when she heard Stan's voice echoing down the hall, coming closer to them. Mabel nearly screamed as she realized that their great-uncle was coming down the hall. Her cellphone buzzed, most likely an early waning text from Soos. Of course Mabel couldn't very well check at the moment. She slammed the bedroom door shut and hissed to her brother;

"Code fuchsia!"

"What does that mean?!" Dipper replied.

"Hide!"

The twins both searched the room, looking for any sort of place to hide in or underneath. The bed was too obvious, he would see them. And under the desk was the same. Behind the curtains might work, but really the only place to go was his closet.

This was all thought of within barely a second. Dipper and Mabel scrambled in to the closet, pushing to either side of the closet walls. It was dark, but there were slits in the door which allowed them to see some of Stan's room. Both twins tried to push as much clothing (Mainly blazers and pants.) In front of themselves. They stopped when they heard Stan open the door to his room.

The con man stepped inside, grumbling to himself. The twins averted their eyes as he quickly stripped off his pop-soaked clothing, and went through his room in search of clean clothing to wear. Mabel held her breath as he walked by the closet more than once. She begged that her brother would not give away her position, and that she would remain absolutely still and quiet. She could feel the blood pounding in her ears, it seemed so loud she thought that it would give away their position.

Stan yanked the closet door open. Suddenly, the twins were blinded by the light, and not shut their eyes as tight as possible. But... Stan didn't see them there. Their position was not given away yet. The man roughly grabbed the nearest blazer before slamming the door shut and leaving the room to go back to the tour group.

Neither twin dared make a sound until Mabel received the all-clear text from Team Beta. They tumbled out of the closet in a heap, sighing in relief. Stan wouldn't be back for at least half an hour, and until then they were safe.

Dipper got to unlocking the trunk, which soon unstuck. As he opened it, the young man's eyes grew wide.

"Jackpot." He whispered.

The young man did not dwell on the contents of the box, instead quickly grabbing what they needed. Stan had a treasure trove of stolen jewelery in this trunk. Dipper knew for sure that Stan didn't catalogue it at all, so they were free to choose what they wanted. Dipper mainly settled for smaller, sharper things. He found some rings with the stones already pried out, and he took all of the earring backings, which would not be missed.

He planned on using the sun's rays to melt the things down. From there, he would be able to weld some rough tools. If they could retrieve those truth teeth from the bottomless pit, they would have even more. But that was a project for another time, when they were not breaking in to their Grunkle's rooms so that they could forge gold (An alloys.) Tools.

From behind him, Mabel was working on clean-up duty, as she made the mess as inconspicuous as possible. When she tossed a pair of boots that had fallen out of the closet with them back in their proper place, her eyes landed on the wall they landed against. There was something odd about the closet wall. Come to think of it, the wall was a completely different colour and texture from the wall. Close, but not quite. It looked almost like it was a fake bottom. Or in this case, side.

The brunette looked at her brother, who was filling his inside pockets with the valuables. Then, she looked back at the strange wall. She squared her shoulders, and then placed her fingers around the edges of the strange wall.

It come off with a quick tug, revealing the reall wall behind it. The closet seemed no bigger, so there was hardly anything to be actually hidden behind there other than the wall. Mabel pushed Stan's clothes to either side, trying to get a better look at the wall. And get a better look at the wall she did.

"Dipper? You might wanna' come see this."

* * *

><p>Soos and Winston had both ducked behind the cash register before the make-shift pop-bomb could go off. Winston squeaked at the loud noises, and instinctively tried to hide. But he knew that doing so would do no use, because he had to play along. Instead, he and Soos got to their feet and tried to help the screaming tourists and Stan, who were still trying to figure out what was going on.<p>

"Don't worry! This is all part of the tour!" Stan frantically cried.

Winston found himself being pushed and shoved around by the tourists as they screamed, trying to escape the mess. It brought back memories, but Winston gritted his teeth and told himself to tough it out. He had to, for Mabel and the P- Dipper. He couldn't let them be caught in the act. Thus he continued to mop up the mess of pop, and hurdle the rest of the screaming people outside with Soos.

Soon enough they had all escaped outside and jumped on yo the bus, which sped off in to the distance. Now came the hard part. A furious Stan Pines turned on them, no doubt thinking that they were guilty of whatever had just happened to them. Soos attempted to sooth the man, wiping off some of his soaking blazer with the nearest novelty shirt.

"You've got a little pop right... There..." The man-child trailed off.

Stan glared at his employee, and took in a deep breath. The two braced themselves for very angry lecture.

"I don't know _what _just happened there, and who was responsible for it. Just clean up this god damned mess before the next tour group comes around. And most importantly, _never, **ever **_do that again. Understand?"

Winston gulped and furiously nodded to convey that he had gotten the message. Soos on the other hand seemed unphased by the stern talking to. He just gave a nod off affirmnation and touched the brim of his hat.

"Yes Mister Pines sir!"

"I'm going to go get changed, and after that I'm on tour with those idiots. Can I trust you two to not blow up the Shack while I'm gone?"

Both confirmed they could do this. The elderly man stormed off to his room. Both stared at each other in horror. Soos whipped out his cell phone and texted Mabel a series of random letters, just to alert her to the fact that Stan was coming. Now all they could do was pray that Stan did not find Dipper and Mabel... They were already in enough trouble as it was.

Luckily, Stan returned and went outside to greet the next batch of tourists. The two employees got to cleaning up the gift shop. Winston wiped down the freezer, while Soos dealt with the floors. This left them with only one problem; The ceiling.

"Dude."

The man-child's statement summed up what he was thinking fairly well.

"Use the mop." Winston supplied.

After a little experimentation, Soos was able to put his handy-man skills to use, and wash the ceiling of it's sticky contents, all while nabbing a great deal of the dust and mould. When he pulled down the mop, it was pure black and covered in some sort of slime. Well, at least the cleaning was done now. This left the two men alone in the gift shop.

Winston felt his hair stand on end for some reason. He didn't know what it was, but something was making him feel suspicious. Then, Soos looked both ways, as if making sure that t gift shop was now completely empty.

"Finally! Dude time!" The man-child exclaimed.

Winston didn't know what that could possibly be. What was a dude? Some kind of word for boy? Either way, he didn't like what was going on. The blond took a few hesitant steps away from his co-worker.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about Mabel for a while now." Soos continued, grabbing Winston by the shoulders and pushing him over to the cash register. "You see Winston, I know that Mabel has been acting strange around you, but rest assured, there is a perfectly logical explination."

From underneath the counter, hidden between some of Wendy's old teen magazines, Soos pulled out a book. But not just any book, a book that would send shivers of disgust and fear running down any fifth-grader's spine. _Sexpectations: The idiot's guide to $e×._

Winston's eyes grew wide as he saw the title. Two main thoughts entered his mind. First, why the word "sex" was written as if it could be censored. Second, sitting through the talk at one point in his life time was enough! He really didn't want to think even more about Mabel in this way! Why did Soos think he was so innocent anyways?! He made a desperate bid for freedom, but he was pushed in to a crushing hug by the man-child. He squeaked, trying to squirm away before he was hurt again.

"Shhh... Don't fight it dude. Don't fight it..."

"N-no! S-Soos I-"

"SHHH!" Soos repeated, trying to calm him down. "Shhh..."

Soos opened up the book, and already the images were causing him to flinch. And this was just the first page.

"S-Soos!" Winston pleaded.

"Table of contents." The handy-man narrated. "Chapter One: Why Your Spouse May Have Bought You this Book. Chapter Two: What is Dollar Sign, Lower-case E, Multiplication Sign? Chapter Three: Types of Dollar Sign, Lower-case E, Multiplication Sign. Chapter Four: Responsible Dollar Sign, Lower-case E, M-"

"I already-"

"Whoa! Eager to get ahead are we? There are only fifty-two more chapters in the first volume two hundred to go!" Soos insisted. "But I guess we can skip to reading the intro."

Winston was fairly certain he was not going to survive this ordeal. Actually, he would only come close death, but not quite now that he thought about it. Bill already had first dibs on killing him... Still, the chance of near death by embarrassment was not a friendly idea.

"Introduction. If your spouse has given you this book, it may be for one of two reasons. A, you are an idiot. Or B, you are too innocent. Don't worry dude, you're option B. Now, you see Winston, in a healthy relationship, couples often feel a special physical attraction to each other. It's what makes them want to do certain things, like hugging and kissing. And on special occasions, dollar sign, lower-case E, multiplication sign."

"Just say sex already!" Winston pleaded.

"Now you're getting the hang of it dude!" Soos smiled. "Now, where were we? Couples often feel the need to perform these sorts of things. But what is dollar sign, lower-case E, multiplication sign? Well, when a man and woman love each other very much-"

Winston seriously hoped that Dipper and Mabel would come to rescue him soon, because Winston had no idea what he was going to do.

* * *

><p>"Dipper? You might wanna' come see this."<p>

Dipper pulled himself away from the chest he had been looting, instead choosing to see what Mabel was looking at. He was expecting to see anything but Mabel standing there, looking rather flabbergasted at the sight before her. The back wall in the closet was a fake! His sister had pulled out the fake side to it, and pushed away the clothes hanging on it.

The real wall was now visible, just barely. It was positively covered in papers and tape of all sorts. At first they were not able to discern much, but flipping on their flash lights (Kept on them just in case.) they were able to see the wall in full. It was mainly clipped out articles from the news, and hand-written notes. Being kept in the dark for so long prevented them from fading too much, however the pages were slightly yellowed.

Dipper noted that all of the articles seemed to date back as far as the fifties, and continued onwards in a slightly diagonal pattern upwards before turning in the opposite direction, before taking a different route... He moved to take a closer look at some of the articles closest to him, centred around the forties and fifties.

The first thing he noticed about the articles was that the author was not listed in them at all. That was only a little odd at best though. But, reading between the lines of a few of the articles, he soon discovered that many of them had to do with deaths. Deaths caused by the "wild life" of Gravity Falls, natural disasters, and the investigations that ensued. Often times there was a note stuck with a article, with a brief statement in Stan's writing about the death. It ranged from things like "He sold me my first car," to "Why couldn't he just leave those kids alone?"

Dipper felt a slight twinge, as he read about the death of a brother and sister who had gone for a swim in the lake and never came back home. He had never really realized that Gravity Falls had so many deaths to it's name.

_"No wonder why Stan's always been so protective of us... He's been hearing about stuff like this for years..." _Dipper thought.

Then, a different thought struck him, as he looked over an article about a giant sink hole that had somehow sucked in hundreds of people. At least according to town legend. It happened back in the eighteen hundreds... Right on the spot where the Mystery Shack was built.

_"That's why there were bodies underneath the Shack to turn in to zombies..."_

He almost threw up realizing that. Through the deluge of deaths and investigations, there were a few odd articles that did not follow the pattern. There was no way to connect these articles as far as Dipper knew though. One was about inflation, another about the continuing Cold War, a new statue that would be placed in town square. Mundane things. Or so he thought.

He slowly looked over more and more sections of the wall as he intently took it all in. The wall was interesting, but he had no idea why Stan would keep something like this a secret. Perhaps to hide the speculations on what had killed many of the townspeople? The wall of deaths in Gravity Falls as a macabre sight, but not really something to keep in the dark like this. As he searched for a clue.

Dipper screamed as he was met face-to-face with... His own face! What was a picture of himself doing in the mix?! Something about that just seemed like a bad omen of some sort. This of course did not go unheard by Mabel.

"What is it bro-bro?" She asked, looking from where he was.

"There's a picture of me in here!" Dipper whispered, pointing to the glazed photo.

"Where?" Mabel wondered. "Behind that one of the guy who looks like Winston?"

"What picture of a guy like Winston? The only picture there is... is-"

Horror dawned on him when Dipper realized what this meant.

"Winston and I really look alike..." He stated.

Mabe grew slightly uncomfortable at this.

"I never really noticed. That's kinda' weird, and creepy. I mean, I think Winston is a cutie, even with all his scars. I look past them, but when I look at you, you're just Dipper!"

Dipper groamed, not wanting to hear Mabel's justification on why liking Winston when he looked like him was not creepy.

"His face is really different with his scars and missing eye." The young man shortly cut in.

"Yeah. I just didn't want it to seem like I was saying-"

"I get it Mabel."

"We're siblings." Mabel affirmed. "And that would be really creepy."

"Definitely."

"Definitely."

It took them both a moment to get over the second of creepiness, but Mabel dragged them back to the topic at hand.

"Maybe it's Winston!"

"What? Come on Mabel! What are the odds of him being born in this time period, let alone in Gravity Falls."

"On June eighteenth, Winston Trembly, aged twenty-one went missing from his home in Gravity Falls. Townsfolk are unsure as to what could have happened to him, as he was never seen leaving his home. The last witness reported him as a young man with long blond hair. He seemed distraught at the time, and was quietly talking to himself. Police believe it may have possibly been... A suicide... Oh gods Dipper! Do you think this is Winston?"

"I-it has to be." Dipper weakly replied. "There's no other option."

A darkening silence ensconced the twins. If this missing man at one time had been Winston... Not only did that meant Stan might have known him, he was actually as old as their Grunkle too. But why would Stan want to hide something like that?

"Maybe we should... Put back the wall and pretend we never saw this." Dipper suggested. "It must be hidden for a reason."

"Y-yeah." His sister agreed.

The twins made a move to put back the fake wall. Only, when the twins stepped back, the realized something. The yellowing papers and the path their went along... It was a triangle, with the picture of Winston right where the eye should have been. The Mystery Twins shared a look, silently communicating with each other. Then both of them covered up the mysterious wall and escaped the room with their prizes.

For what reason Stanford Pines had documented the deaths of all those who fell victim to Gravity Falls they did not know. And quite frankly, neither one of them wanted to find out as well.


	9. Chapter 9

**Two updates in two days! Go Ekat go! **

**The science in this chapter is legit, and was one of my favourite experiments in chemistry. Even if we didn't get to use real gold due to the obvious reason of expenses. However I did have to look up the melting point of gold. It's 1090°C, but I wrote 2000°F because of the story setting.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><em>"Mine."<em>

Dipper woke up with a repulsed shudder. He had told himself to wait a little while after stealing that jewelery from Stan, to let things cool down a bit. He didn't want his Grunkle discovering him as he worked on forming the tools for removing those windows. But after waking up from another nightmare, he was tired of being played with, tortured, and tormented. He could still feel the spidery fingers brushing over the decaying, black brand on his wrist. And not to mention the sickening whisper that persisted in his ears.

_"Mine."_

Dipper growled in frustration rubbing his eyes. He couldn't deal with this right now. He had to feel like he was at least doing _something _to stop him. In the silvery moonlight he got out of bed and arranged the pillows so that it looked like he was still in bed. Not that Mabel or Winston would notice. Neither one of them slept fitfully when laying together. Dipper could not help but feel protective of his sister, seeing her resting in the arms of his nightmares. This was enough to remind himself that he'd rather take the punishment rather than let the real culprit purse his sister instead.

_"You know, I wouldn't mind a matched set. Too bad you guys are siblings. Even I have my limits. Winnie on the other hand, whata' lucky guy."_

_"Don't touch her!"_

_"Winnie's already got dibs. I wouldn't want to infringe on that. Speaking of which, it's high time he had a nightmare."_

The presence in his head lightened. Only now Winston's gentle smile curved in to a frown as he was obviously upset. As much as he didn't wish him on anyone, Dipper was glad for the distraction. He had been taking painstaking care to make sure that he was not found out and stopped. With him focusing in on Winston he was free for the moment.

Grabbing a jacket, he pulled it over his shirt. The summer nights were often times still freezing. He didn't want to see the mark on his arm either. Then, he grabbed his journal, a blacklight, and went down the stairs as quickly and as quietly as he possibly could.

Dipper went outside to where the shed was in the back yard. This was where they kept a lot of the heavy-duty equipment and golf carts. It was cramped full with all sorts of things, but this mattered little to him. Earlier Dipper had cleared a pathway back to a rough lab he had set up. No one but himself knew that it was there, and everything was easily disguised as just another part to the shed.

There was an old counter top that must have been in the Shack's kitchen when it had first been opened. Which was saying something, as the current counters were bad enough as it was. He had found a stool which reached the counter hight and placed it there. Plus he had scavenged an assortment of different glassware. He even had different tongs, a few petrie dishes, and test tubes.

Dipper pulled out the bag of gold object that he had stashed in the counter, trying to ignore the dust and cobwebs his hands swept through. Then, he found the metal slab that he planned to use for a cast. He had tested before and knew that it was heat-resistant enough to pour the molten liquid in to it and not have it stick. He had tried with a few trace amounts of other metals, and was happy to discover that everything had worked to his satisfaction.

The slab had several rod-like holes in it, along with a few more flat engravings, which was exactly the shapes he had been planning on making. The tools he had to use were rather crude, but there was no other choice on the matter. He couldn't possibly hope to afford anything that was state-of-the-art.

Rolling his shoulders, Dipper dragged out the canister of barbecue propane that he had hidden under a tarp. From there he attached one end of a hose to the nozzle. Dipper stuck on a hat to keep his messy hair in line, and pulled thick gloves and liners on. This was followed by a pair of welding goggles. All safety measures for the things he would have to go through next.

Dipper turned on the gas, and grabbed the lighter he kept in his pocket. With a quiet "poof" the gas lit on fire in a brilliant red and gold stream of light. The gold pieces were already laid out in the tray, so all he had to do was pass the heat over them. The gold would melt at around 2000° F, but the process could be sped up by adding a little boric acid.

Nothing seemed to happen at first as he torched the metal. But after holding the flame over it, the gold started to heat up, and softly glow an orange-red colour. Holding it longer and tilting the tray at an angle with the tongs, he was able to spread the molten liquid farther and farther throughout the mold.

Dipper repeated the process with all of the other inserts until he was satisfied with what he had in front of him. Now came the complicated part. Picking up the trap with only pair of tong for support was already a difficult task, but carrying it through a messy shed to where the tap was made it all the more challenging. It felt like he was taking one step per minute as he manuvered around countless things.

But he made it, and was able to set things down underneath the hose entrance. From there, he very carefully doused it in cold water, taking pains not to disturb the formation of the gold. The metal stopped steaming and glowing after a few minutes of cooling time. He still waited longer than necessary to make sure that he did not mess up at all. He just couldn't risk making any mistakes and having to start over again.

One by one, he pulled out the pieces he had cast. Gold, even when not in it's purest form was a fairly soft metal. With a steel knife he was able to shape the end of the rod-like shapes in to sharp skewers. With the flat parts he sharpened and curved the edge until he had what could considered a knife. With the parts that had been scraped off he still had enough gold to make even more of the rough tools.

He had the objects he needed, now all he had to do was use them. Dipper knew he had promised Mabel to let her help destroy all of the symbols, but he had to test one first, so he would know what to expect. If Mabel got hurt because of him... She wouldn't get hurt. Dipper would be ready to protect his sister from the coming storm. Their time was 25% finished after all. He would start with the shed.

Taking one of the skewers, Dipper went to the tiny triangle etched on the counter top. Doing what the journal instructed, he stabbed the desk, right where the eye should have been on the tiny insignia. Dipper leapt back, pulling the skewer with him as a slight hissing sound was heard. Right before his eyes the triangle dissolved right in to the desk, like nothing had ever been marked in it at all.

"Success!" Dipper cheered out loud.

"Who's there?!"

Dipper felt his blood run cold. It was Stan. He had been so focused on watching the window dissolve before his eyes that he never saw the yellow beam of a flash light venturing towards the shed. His mouth opened in a silent scream.

_"What do I do?! How will I explain this to Stan?!"_

Dipper did the only thing he could; Remain still as a statue. The he could hear in the summer night were the sounds of the forest, and the crunching of gravel as Stan shuffled around, investigating the outside of the shed.

"Hm, musta' been that stupid raccoon again."

Stan marched back inside, grumbling about waking up for nothing. Dipper heaved a great sigh of relief and slouched against the wall of the shed. He was safe. Safe for now at least. Thank goodness he had not been caught either time by Stan.

As he leaned against the wall, still breathing heavily after holding it, Dipper's eyes rested on his wrist. The mark there... Was it a window as well? Would this allow him to be constantly watched by him? All logic pointed to a strong yes. It made perfect sense that after getting it he could hear the voice in his head.

This was going to hurt. A lot. But it had to be done if he wanted to get rid of the force watching over him. Winston as well. Maybe the man would let him remove the mark. That was, if it even worked. Dipper certainly hoped that he was not about to do this for nothing.

"It will be like ripping off a band-aid." He quietly promised himself.

Taking one of the gold knifes he had made, Dipper took reassuring breath and pressed it to his wrist.

"Just imagine that you're peeling an apple Dipper. You can do this."

He winced and instinctively withdrew his wrist when it got caught under the inflamed burn, but placed the knife back under the spot. I wasn't like it was very deep at all. Just the surface of his skin.

"Like a hangnail." Dipper said. "They hurt like crazy for a moment, bleed a little, but stop."

One more deep inhale, and then he jerked the knife, tearing off the entire triangle-shaped burn on his wrist. It too made hissing sound, and the burned piece of skin dissolved before his eyes. Dipper bit his tongue to prevent from screaming as pain like he had never felt before overwhelmed him. It was even worse than when he had gotten the burn.

He could taste the blood in his mouth from biting so hard, and had no choice but to keep his mouth shut and swallow the blood. Right away he felt sick to his stomach, and had to fight back the rising bile in his throat.

There was so much blood. Why was there so much blood? He could feel the sticky substance spreading farther across his arm and dripping all over him. It was all he could smell. Just more and more blood.

Dipper only had done thought before blacking out.

_"I'm not anyone's puppet."_

* * *

><p>Bill was not happy to say the least, discovering that in the five seconds he had left Dipper to bother someone else for a change, the kid had gone and done... Well Bill wasn't sure what he had done! Which was why he was not the happiest dorito-monster at the moment. Where ever Dipper was, he didn't have any sight there! Someone had blinded off that spot off! Nowhere in Gravity Falls was that possible!<p>

Oh that brat had hell to pay for once he fell asleep!

It was his lucky day apparently. Dipper materialized before him, disoriented and groggy. Groaning, a bloodied Dipper got to his feet on shaking legs, only to find himself being shoved back on to the ground. Hard. Moaning helplessly, he groaned;

"What was that for?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" His furious voice echoed. "THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW?!"

He made a move to throw everything he had at the man. Dipper instinctively shielded his face from whatever wrath was about to befall him. That was when he saw the blood dripping from his wrist, and the gaping red patch of exposed flesh where his brand had once been. It was then Bill knew exactly what Dipper had done.

Dipper, now on his hands and knees futilely tried to crawl away, but he was grabbed by the legs and thrown against a wall. The man felt his vision blur as he was tossed around like a rag doll by the furious demon. A few of his ribs must have fractured as he was thrown. Even without a body he was something to be feared. A pair of hands wrapped around his throat and started to squeeze. The young man tried to thrash out of his grip, but was left with less and less oxygen.

"Where did you learn how do to this?" He interrogated.

"The journal!" Dipper honestly replied. "I-It was the journal!"

He was backhanded so hard that Dipper thought his neck might snap. His eyes stung with pained tears.

"LIAR! TELL THE TRUTH!"

"I am!" Dipper cried.

The choke-hold around him grew stronger.

"TELL ME NOW!"

"I-I am!" Dipper promised. "I-I found it under the invisible entries!"

"NO IT WASN'T! I know those journals through and through you arrogant sob! You found it somewhere else!"

"Maybe the a-author tricked you!"

"Tricked me?! ME?!' He snarled, raising his voice again.

Dipper squeaked in reply, unable to speak. He felt his head grow fuzzy and dark. He couldn't breathe all any more. But he was telling the truth! He had found in the journal! Why wouldn't he listen to him? Was this what Winston regularly went through? His breath was suddenly no longer restricted, and Dipper gave a relieved gasp. With his uninjured hand he rubbed his throbbing throat.

"Well, do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"L-look in my m-memories. I'm telling t-the t-t-truth."

Bill looked almost stricken by such a simple solution.

"You wouldn't want an angry dream-demon in your head. Trust me."

"Y-you just strangled me! And now you're saying that you don't want to do the mental equivalent to my head?" Dipper asked, unimpressed.

"Yeesh, who thought you were such a sadist?" Bill wondered. "But if you insist-"

"N-no!"

"Oh, well now that you _really _don't want me in your head I'll have no choice but to- ARRAGH!"

He withdrew the outstretched hand he was going to place on Dipper, letting out a pained howl. His finger tips were burned in the placed where he had attempted to take over his body. Furious now at realizing that he would have to do things the had way, he grew angry once more.

"_Why! YOU! LITTLE! **BRAT!"**_

With each word, Dipper was slapped another time. With the finishing statement, Dipper head his own neck snap. And his body suddenly felt strange. He didn't have control over it any more! The demon let go of him, and he fell to the ground on his side. Dipper silently screamed, trying to get to his feet, feel something, or at least speak. His head... His head shouldn't be facing this way! It wasn't natural!

A dark realization came over him. His neck had been snapped. He was dead!

"Yes. You are." He smugly agreed. "Luckily for you, the part where you die happens right before you wake up. This won't be the last time this happens either."

* * *

><p>Dipper may have thought that all his actions over the past while had escaped Stan's notice, but he was far from it. Stan had already been on guard ever since Winston had returned to the Mystery Shack. He had not seen the young man for years, he should have been as old as him by this time. Yet instead he was met with the sight of the young, if not battered man that he was. Seeing Winston again nearly made his heart freeze.<p>

One night Dipper and Mabel had said they were going out to the movies. He hadn't suspected anything at the time because he was more focused on the gateway. Besides, so long as they were paying with their own money, he could trust the two to go off for little while. So, the twins headed to the "movies" and he headed down to the basement.

So imagine his surprise when they came home three hours past curfew, covered in glowing blue liquid, while holding the body of Winston Trembly between them. Stan had waved it off as his old eyes and fuzzy memories playing tricks on him. After all, the anniversary of the man's disappearance was coming up. It made perfect sense that he might spare a thought to the man who had been so interested in his girl Carla. A man who had acted so much like Dipper during his time.

Stan thought he had been farther justified in assuming he was not Winston based off of how heavily scarred this man was. The drastic changes in appearance seemed to do it for him. At least until Dipper and Mabel started to call him Winston.

So then Stan told himself that Winston's voice was nothing like the Winston's he had known. From what he could recall, Trembly always had a rather high voice. Full of squeaks and cracks, even well past puberty. Just like... Dipper... Well, as it turned out once he got Winston to speak, his voice sounded like Dipper with really bad sore throat.

Alright, this just meant there was no more denying himself on the matter at hand. It was the same Winston, back from the grave to haunt him. Winston Trembly, an annoying little footstool of guy, one who he had never particularly liked in the past.

Dislike didn't cover it. Now, Stan saw some of the things as rather brash, especially since he himself had been bullied a lot in the past. But at the time he did not hesitate to cause problems for Trembly whenever they crossed paths. After all, he was the one who chased after Carla. But during those last few months, when Winston seemed to be worn thin and worse for wear... When no body was ever found... Stan thought he might of driven the man to killing himself...

Guilt was a pesky thing, a pesky thing that Stan hated feeling. He had told himself that Winston's mysterious vanishing had nothing to do with him. The dumb kid had probably just gotten eaten by some creature in the forest.

That thought didn't make him feel any less guilty.

Fear and suspicion were the first things he felt. Winston was back from his... Departure. Looking worse for wear, yet none the less young. What sort of supernatural element let him stay like this? And how dangerous was it? Could Winston be back for revenge? Was he out to get him and his family? What if it was all an act? What if he was just pretending to not remember, the frightened moments acts?

No, no... They were too good and realistic to be acts. You didn't fake nightmares. You didn't fake hiding under a bed for hours at time, fearing whatever it was that was out to get you. Winston genuinely didn't remember. If he did, he didn't care.

Of course that still didn't help him on the whole guilty factor.

Stan knew that he had to make things right this time. That was why he had been "gently" pushing the man towards getting toughened up, speaking once more. Like... Dipper... Just like his great-nephew...

The similarities between the two were starting to freak him out.

But that was besides the point. This was why he was letting Winston and his bleeding heart chase after Mabel, even if, like before he did not act on any of the stupid googly-eyed looks he made. If he just let the man live his life, maybe once, if he got his memories back, he wouldn't feel so strongly against him...

The sound of someone or something yelling from outside his bedroom window caught Stan's attention. After this past month, he knew better than to just wave it off as nothing. Muttering to himself, the elderly man got out of bed and picked up the flash light on his desk.

Stan made his way out of the back yard in slippered feet, wondering what was going on. The sound he had heard came from the shed.

"Who's there?" He asked, swinging the beam of the flash light.

Silence met him of course. But as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he was able to see the silhouette of someone in his shed. Dipper by the looks of it, pressed against the wall. Stan debated calling out his great-nephew, but sided with leaving him alone.

Knowing it was only Dipper, Stan headed back to the Mystery Shack, annoyed that he had been woken up for nothing again. If he was going to sneak out of bed, he could at least be quiet about it. The elderly man returned to his room and slammed the door shut behind him.

When Stan went to put his flash light back on the desk, he noted something. There was a thing or two off with the way all of his various odds and ends were sorted out on the table. Almost, almost like... Someone had been in his room.

"Dipper." He instinctively growled, knowing this had to do with his great-nephew.

Something told the man that Mabel had to as well. But when? Of course! That day when all hell had broken loose in the Shack thanks to Winston and Soos! It was ploy to distract him and he had fallen for it! But where had the twins hidden? And what did they want from his room? Wait... Was that a bobby-pin laying on his carpet?!

He went over to the chest where he kept great deal of valuables. He unlocked it, and frantically searched for whatever they had taken. None of the photo albums were missing. Nor the fake identities. All that left was the scrap jewelery which he had "collected" over the years. Yes, inspecting that farther he found that it was definitely lighter than before. Some of his gold pieces had been stolen! Those two brats!

Anger gave away to fear. There were more incriminating things they could've found after all. In an action surprisingly limber for an old man, he jumped to his feet and nearly tore the closet door off of it's hinges. Stan pulled back the fake wall and pushed his clothes to the side. H gave a sigh of relief. Nothing on the wall had been touched. And there was no way that the twins could have found it anyways.

Reassured by this, he turned off the lights and headed back to bed. His secrets were still safe. For now.


End file.
